Dead Letters
by Perfect Soldier 01
Summary: LxZ. Link has travelled through time so often, it has become unbalanced. This causes the ages to tear, Link and Zelda get seperated, and Ganon could be freed. Will Link and Zelda ever find each other?
1. Calling of History

**Dead Letters**

By Perfect Soldier 01

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"A dead letter is a letter that has never been delivered because the person to whom it was written cannot be found, and it also cannot be returned to the person who wrote it." The Rasmus

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Chapter 1 - Calling of History

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Link's POV:

The skies had been as clear as a summer's day in Hyrule, the clouds supporting us underneath the unravelling turns of the white haze. That moment had been forever etched into the stone tablets of my mind, and I could never forget, even when awake, the look in Zelda's eyes. Every night since then I had been reliving those few moments in time, watching helplessly as the scene played out before me. I had come to notice the trembling of her hands, the unshed tears in her eyes, and the mourning inside her heart as I met her each night in my dreams. Every time her fingers brushed against mine as I held out the ocarina to her, I felt my heart skip a beat and my breathing become slightly more laboured. I too had come to learn of this strange longing for her, and when I closed my eyes at night it was all I could think of.

Seven years had passed since then, and I had finally lived the life I had missed; the life in my dreams I hadn't wanted. I had spent most of my years residing in the castle as the Kokiri were beginning to become suspicious of my growing height. I had left the forest and went to the only person I knew who would help me: Princess Zelda. She seemed to know something that I didn't, something very important about my past but I had never pushed the matter, for I was confused as it was without having to add to the tangled memories in my head.

It was never easy growing up in the palace, for these dreams filled me with such love for the princess I could never look at her straight in the eye. While I was back in the land of the living I could never 'love' her in the way I seemed to have once done in my dreams. A mere peasant like myself wouldn't even dare think such forbidden thoughts. Truth be told though, Zelda had grown to be undeniably beautiful, and I often watched her from my window when she was diligently tending to her flowers in the courtyard where we'd first met seven years ago. Yet she was always out of my reach, an unattainable treasure I could only gaze upon…

I didn't even have a past I could remember. The only time I knew anything about myself was when I fell asleep, becoming the courageous Hylian hero who had rescued all of Hyrule from the evil Ganon. Or maybe it was a figment of my imagination…what I wanted to be...so Zelda would perhaps glance my way….

"Link?" a gentle voice snapped me back into reality. "May I come in?"

"It's open," I called from where I was lying on my bed. The oak door opened revealing the very person who had invaded my thoughts.

"Good morning Link," she said smiling. I returned the greeting, my eyes subconsciously trailing her every movement. "Did…did it happen again?" she said all the more nervously. I sighed and nodded my head. I remembered the hazy afternoon when I had taken a chance and told Zelda about these strange dreams. It had taken a lot of unfinished sentences and more embarrassment that I'd wanted, but for a reason unknown to myself, when she had placed her hand delicately over mine and looked at me the words came…and I couldn't stop them.

Zelda sighed quietly and crossed the length of the room and opened the large windows, allowing fresh air to waft into my chambers. "Link, I have something important to tell you." She said, her back turned. I swung my legs over the side of my bed, watching her hands come to rest over her heart. "I too had a dream last night…about the very same thing." Her voice was shaking slightly as she turned round to face me. "I'm not exactly sure why you or I have been dreaming of the past…but something must be stirring in Hyrule that we are unaware of yet…Will you help me?" she said gazing directly at me.

"Of course." I said. 'Your prophecies are never wrong Zelda.' I added silently.

"Thank you Link," She said gratefully. "Please, come with me. I need to show you something."

We walked in silence to the Royal Library and Zelda directed me toward a table covered in old, dusty scripts. The pages were old and flimsy as she turned each page carefully to where a bookmark protruded out of the mass of dull grey ridges.

"Here," she said pointing to lines of old Hylian text that I couldn't understand. But instead I looked at the pictures illustrating the ancient tale, and I gasped in shock at what I saw.

"It's me…" I whispered as I sat down, staring at the triumphant picture. A man in identical clothing stood piercing the King of Evil with the legendary Master Sword. My eyes trailed downward and I saw Zelda and myself on the clouds exchanging the Ocarina of Time, just like in my dreams… "What does this mean?" I asked aloud to myself.

"I don't know Link," Zelda answered. "I found this earlier today, and I thought that we should look at it, seeing as how it seems to concern both of us." She said taking a seat next to me.

"Is this what happened?" I said, feeling somewhat frightened by this sudden revelation about my past. She nodded. "Then, in my dream…I really was sent back in time…but why? Why would you send me back when I wanted to stay with you?" At once I clamped my hand over my mouth, realising the horrifying words of truth that had just sprung from my lips. Zelda's face lit up in shock, her cheeks becoming a darker shade of red as she stared at me in disbelief.

"L-Link, I - " she started, all control vanishing from her voice.

"I'm sorry," I interrupted. "Please forgive me, it was…I mean - " I said begging for mercy, but my words became frantic and they tumbled over each other, not making any sense at all.

"Link," Zelda said more firmly and her eyes caught mine in a friendly but terrifying gaze. "It's all right, calm down. You're forgiven." She said calmly, the hues of her face returning to the pale white of her skin. But it wasn't enough to ease the encroaching fear creeping into my heart, and the violent thumping inside my chest was overwhelming everything else.

"I just remembered…I need to go and…do something…" I mumbled, wanting nothing more than to leave the awkward situation. Rising from my chair I walked briskly out of the library without looking back, restraining myself from breaking into a sprint. I heard Zelda call after me, but as soon as I was out of the great wooden doors, I ran down the hallways to the place farthest from where she would come looking for me.

'I'm just a peasant, an ordinary peasant. I'm not a prince or even a hero…' I reminded myself. 'I have no right to say things like that to the princess, and Zelda would never look at me that way anyway…and if the King found out about this, I might as well start packing my bags now…'

I rounded a corner and sighting some maids, I slowed down to a walk. Checking behind me, the corridors were empty, and I made my way down to stairs and walked outside toward the barracks before the maids could cast any strange looks as to why I seemed a little out of breath. The clean air was a welcome change from the stuffy library and I breathed in deeply, taking in the smells of the new spring.

Picking a sword off from the grey stone barracks wall, I drowned myself in the dance-like movements of thrusts and parries, forgetting all about the last few moments that I wished I'd never lived through. I struck the wooden post in the middle of the training grounds again and again; venting out my self-anger at my stupid actions until the sun dipped behind the surrounding hills and cast midnight blue colours across the sky that bled into the blazing reds and pinks of the sunset. But as I came to finish the sequence of movements I'd begun, I blinked, and suddenly the post wasn't there. Expecting to drive my sword into the wood, I fell forward onto the floor when I realised there was nothing to hold my weight. Rubbing my head, I wondered what had just happened, and I screwed up my eyes in annoyance that I'd missed the target. I picked myself up off the hay covered floor and turned around to possibly see where I'd gone wrong, but my mouth almost dropped open when I saw the post standing right where I thought it should have been. I stared back and forth from my sword to the post, utterly confused by what had just happened.

'I think I've been working too hard,' I thought.

I replaced the sword on the rack and left the empty training grounds feeling a little surprised at myself. I had never missed a target when I had trained solo, and even when I had company, I blocked everything they threw at me.

'Speaking of which, some company would be nice right about now…' I thought to myself as I walked through the quiet, deserted walkways. As I crossed through one of the courtyards, I half-expected Zelda to be sitting on one of the stone benches like she always did when the weather was fine. Unconsciously I craned my head round the corner to check, but then I realised that it was far too late for her to be out here in the cold.

I hadn't seen the princess for the remainder of that day, and I was somewhat relieved. Although I'd nearly told her my deepest secret, her beautiful face still haunted my thoughts, and I wanted to apologise properly. I walked back inside the castle toward my chambers, tired from a hard afternoon's training, but just as I was about to open my door, a voice beckoned me from behind and my heart sunk to my stomach.

"Link! There you are," Zelda said without the expected disgust or hatred in her tone. "I've been looking for you." My hand retreated from the doorknob and I turned to see her walking swiftly toward me. But as I stood still, her form became blurred in my eyes, and the walls decayed around me, becoming windows to a different age. I rubbed my eyes, confused at what was happening. I heard voices from another time and past conversations slipped into my ears. I saw people walk by me, their appearance as faint as the noises around me. Images appeared on the walls and I was standing in what seemed to be an old marketplace, surrounded by small mud-baked houses.

"Link!" a muffled cry came form in front of me. I saw Zelda running toward me incredibly slowly, her hand outstretched. But with each movement she made, I saw in her images of a younger Zelda. I ran to her, reaching out for her ever changing hand and pulled her close to me, afraid that she might disappear.

"What's happening?" I shouted amongst the growing noises of the ghosts and of the weird voices whispering chilling words in the air.

"I-I think the time streams are being disrupted!" she cried. "Listen!" and straining my ears, I heard the exact conversation we'd had that very morning. "This looks like old Hyrule, before the castle was built…but that was centuries ago." She said, and I blinked.

Everything had disappeared.

The walls had transformed back into the flagstones, and the floors had regained their royal red carpet that stretched down the hallways. Then I realised that I was still holding Zelda to me protectively, and I hastily freed her from my embrace, looking away immediately.

"That wasn't just me was it?" I said, looking around me. Straightening out her dress, I saw Zelda look at me out of the corner of my eye.

"No, it wasn't. I saw all that too," she said. "Link, I never got to finish telling you this, but I think the reason these dreams are occurring is because when you - I mean, the Hero of Time travelled through time, he disrupted the time flow."

"So that's why the training post disappeared…" I mused to myself, but Zelda heard me and looked at me strangely. "Oh, nothing." I said.

"Not that," she said. "You actually believe me?"

"Of course I do…Y-Your prophecies are always right." The words stumbled out of my mouth before I could control what I was saying. Her eyes softened, and I felt more words beginning to tumble through my lips. "Back then…you were right about Ganon…weren't you?" I said scratching my neck.

"And you were the only one who believed me…" she said almost a whisper.

"Do you remember too?" I asked quietly, knowing I was now treading on very thin ground. From her answer it seemed that through the dream we both had, she had also gained the previous princess Zelda's memories of that age. But did she also know of the love that I had once felt for her as well?

"Yes," she said, her eyes averted. "Come, there's something you should see." She said breaking free of her reverie, her voice more serious than before. Like an obedient dog I followed after her toward the direction of her own royal chambers. I waited outside as instructed while she walked into her quarters to presumably retrieve something of importance. Maybe it had something to do with my past…or perhaps it was a long lost translation of the text we were reading earlier.

I heard clicks of a lock come from within, and I noticed that Zelda had left her door ajar. From where I stood I could see the lavishly decoration and ornamentation adorning her chambers, completely different from my own, plain living space.

'I don't deserve to live in such a place,' I thought. But then I realised something. ' Why do I live - '

Zelda came through the door once more interrupting my thoughts, and she brought out something hidden in her gloved hands. Moving one hand away, underneath lay a shining blue ocarina, the symbol of the Triforce embedded in the mouthpiece.

"Is that?" I said as Zelda offered the legendary ocarina to me.

"The Ocarina of Time," she said finishing my sentence while smiling up at me. However that moment was short-lived as once again the corridor began to shake and crumble into a different time. The floor abruptly gave way, my feet sinking into the carpet as I drifted downward through the stone. I felt as though I was in water as a unusual force was weighing me down all around me, and I continued to drown further into oblivion.

"Zelda!" I cried, reaching blindly for her hand.

"Play the ocarina Link! I think this is a time stream!" I heard her say from somewhere beside me. I put the instrument to my lips, and I was astonished when my fingers played a haunting melody without ever having learnt the rhythms or pitches…at least not in this age…

A blue light suddenly surrounded me, but I hadn't found Zelda yet. Frantically I scrambled around in the invisible liquid before the light swallowed me completely. But it was too late. I felt consciousness slip from my mind as I was enveloped by the bright light. The last thing I could remember was something hugging my waist tightly as I lost all sense of direction, time and space.

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AN: So, how was that? A little strange I know, but it will make sense later. Please, please, please review, as I really want to know what you think of this. The reason for Link being a little OOC is that this Link, as you may have gathered, isn't the same one from OoT. This is the Link that Zelda sent back in time, and who has lived a life in peace without battles or anything of that nature.

hint Please review! :D


	2. Destiny's Love

AN: Wow, this must be an all time record for me for most reviewers in one chapter! Thank you everyone so much for reviewing, it really makes a difference to know whether people like what I write, or on the other hand don't like my ideas. I hope this chapter will be as good as the last.

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ayachan21: Here it is! The update you've been waiting for . I'm glad you like this enough to nag me about updating. No one's ever sent me two reviews for one chapter before ;;

Berlin'sBrownEyes: Can I quote you on that? It would be cool to have a quote

zeldaqueen: Thank you! I find writing in 1st person is a lot easier than writing in 3rd because I find it comes a lot more naturally.

LainieG304: I hope so, because it's going to be a mighty hard task to accomplish what I plan to achieve in this story. If I pull it off, I'm sure it will be as great as you hope it will be :D

MidnightStarfire: Thank you so much! I totally agree with you on the first chapter issue. The first chapter is everything!

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Chapter 2 - Destiny's Love

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Zelda's POV:

The Ocarina of Time…That had been the same pale blue instrument that had handed to me in my dream, and Link had just played the exact tune that had been blown from my lips upon those drifting clouds of nothing…

Consciousness was beginning to return to me as the darkness behind my eyes grew hundreds of shades lighter. Groggily I sat up; a weight in my head whirling in heavy circles before I blinked several times so my vision could adjust to the streaming light. I opened my eyes slowly, feeling the dull thump gradually dissolve into nothing inside my skull, but something all the more uncomfortable suddenly suffocated my senses as the sweltering volcanic heat of Death Mountain washed over me like a rushing tide of baptising flames. I wanted to breath, and inhale air before the heat drowned me, but I felt something mask the lower half of my face. My fingers scrambled around what felt like a soft material and as I looked down, my eyes widened and I suddenly felt scared hiding behind the jagged rocks that littered the stony ground. My fingers were bandaged, as were my arms, and I recognised the symbol on my front as one of the Sheikah that my attendant Impa had once told me about.

'What in Hyrule is going on?' I thought to myself. The urge to pull down the dull, white ruff clinging to my face was all too tempting, but for reasons unknown to myself at that time, I knew that I couldn't fall into temptation…

A sudden click reigned through the caverns that became quicker and louder as the seconds ticked by. It had been the sound I had been waiting for.

"We meet again Hero of Time." A voice said gently. I gasped at the sudden intrusion, although the material around my mouth muffled the noise that had escaped my lips. I looked around frantically to see whom the voice belonged to, but my legs began to move and I peeked through the dripping gaps of the rocks and spied the Hero that had been spoken of just moments before, run determined through the heat of the magma. Subconsciously I realised that it was Link, but my body automatically began moving again, leaving me with no control over the graceful and elegant steps that appeared to me as more of a dance than a walk. Words were then born into the air from my mouth, startling Link as he turned around, yet they belonged to the same voice that had spoken before.

"A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger over time… The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power and through it, you will know which way to go…" The words kept coming from this unknown source of riddles and poetry, but I could feel the mysterious voice echoing from the depths of my mind.

As I spoke, I looked up at my companion, seeing that the hazy warmth had dirtied his golden skin slightly and his tawny hair drooped, falling into his piercing blue eyes, but nonetheless his entire aura was one of strength and power. In his gauntlet adorned hand I saw the legendary Master Sword, clutched tightly within his grasp. But my time was short with the Link as I soon drew back into the rising flames, out of sight once again. I heard him call after me with a name unfamiliar to me.

The scene suddenly shifted and the colours of the hot red walls and dark black crevasses merged into the peaceful blues of the sky and the earth tones of the grass. I was standing on a small pedestal of land high above the vast Lake Hylia; Guays crowing in the morning dawn as the waters sparkled and glittered in the sunlight. Link stood in front of me, his back turned, and again I began to speak these foreign words as I walked forward to join him watching the sunrise.

"Time passes, people move…Like a river's flow it never ends. A childish mind will turn to noble ambition. Young love will become deep affection…"

He turned to look at me and smiled, the water's glistening surface reflecting in his eyes. I thought that my cheeks were burning as I cautiously glanced at him through short strands of my blonde hair, but he was looking elsewhere. As the sun shone down on us, his light honey coloured hair waved back and forth in the breeze, full of life and vitality as he looked cheerfully out onto the lake, a smile gracing his lips. No longer was he the somewhat scrawny boy of seven years ago, but a fine and handsome young man…

'The future Hero of Hyrule.' I thought absent-mindedly, abruptly feeling myself blush once again underneath the white cloth. Deciding that my time here was over, my borrowed body retreated from Link's company and climbed the old, torn tree that lay alone on the island completely unnoticed. From the top branches I saw Link look frantically around, realising my absence, and I smiled. Closing my eyes, I dived from atop the tree and awaited the cool and refreshing waters to embrace me as I fell through the renewed air that Link had restored.

Just as I felt the cool liquid splash against my face, my eyes sprung open once again and I found myself back in my own room, the lilac covers strewn in heaps around me. Bringing a hand to my face, I half-expected the white ruff to be wrapped tightly around it, but I only felt the trembling of my own skin and the short breaths emanate from my mouth. I didn't know who I had been, or why Link had appeared in my dream, but it seemed so familiar to what Link had told me about his own dreams. He and I were there…taking part in this epic adventure that neither of us remembered. Yet while I slept…I had full knowledge of the past, present and the future, my host's memories and my own…

But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering me…

As I had gazed at him on the shores of Lake Hylia, I had felt my heart quicken, racing inside my chest. My breathing had become nervous and as I spoke my eyes fidgeted, not staying fixed in one place, but recklessly darted to and fro from Link to the ground beneath me feet. Somehow I knew he didn't know who I was and that I had passed off myself as a Sheikah, but the princess inside me gazed upon him fondly, eager for the time when I would reveal myself to Link. The longing that had been alive inside my heart frightened me for now, I couldn't think of Link anymore than a dear friend whom I had literally grown up with over the long years. He was my best friend, a kind but timid young man…not this courageous hero whom I supposedly…loved.

But then again, I could remember that day when I had first met Link as if it were yesterday. Something in my heart had told me that this boy was special, and even to this day, I never truly understood why. Impa had told me many times that Link had a destiny linked with the Royal Family, but I hadn't pushed the matter for in my heart I knew that she was right. Over the years I had forgotten the exact reason why Link had been accepted into the castle, but then it hadn't mattered. He had no family and no home, and nothing except the Great Deku Tree's advice to seek me for help.

'Why am I wasting time thinking about the past?' I thought angrily. Finding I was still in my dress, although creased from my sleep, I rushed outside and ran as fast as I could toward Link's chambers. My thoughts were flying wildly along with me as I wondered if Link had been there too, whether he'd been inside the other Link's body, what he had felt… and so many questions were burning on my tongue. As I rounded a corner, I suddenly collided with someone and I hastily apologised, not turning to even see whom I had so clumsily crashed into. But my hand was caught, pulling me backward a few steps.

"Zelda," the hand's owner said and my head jerked upward, my eyes holding a thousand questions.

"Link!" I gasped. "What just happened? Do you have the same dream too? Were you there like I was?" I said without pausing for a breath, my hands unconsciously finding their way to Link's arms where they held his sleeves tightly within my fingers.

"Princess, calm down!" he said, trying to hush the babbling sentences running out of my lips. "D-Did you…It was you wasn't it? There, at Death Mountain and Lake Hylia, it was you." His voice became quieter and quieter as he looked into my eyes, finding the answers he wanted.

"Yes," I said, barely a whisper, as my heart began to quicken. Something in his innocent stare was driving my thoughts mad with unspoken confusion, and I felt exposed and vulnerable in this new found stupidity. I suddenly realised that his hands too were holding my arms as I felt them tremble for a mere second. But I couldn't tear my eyes away from his, however much I wanted to look down. His blue pools of uncertainty were locked with mine in this invisible fortress, silent words dashing back and forth between us. Despite the fear building rapidly in my heart, trying to block nearly everything that was happening, I could see clearly that he too had felt this weird and alien desire that I had felt for him in my dream…

His breathing was becoming more laboured, as was mine. I suddenly felt his hands claim a firm hold my shoulders and I gasped, somewhat afraid of what was about to happen next. As I continued to hold his gaze, he now asked the questions with his eyes, and felt utterly powerless to do anything but nod my head ever so slightly. Then cautiously, as if to give me another chance in the matter, Link moved his head slowly down toward mine. Even though I wasn't tired, my eyes began to droop, and despite being completely awake, those feelings of longing and love flourished and blossomed inside my heart at that moment like a blooming flower. My grip on his sleeves relaxed slightly, but Link made suddenly stopped in his tracks, hurt flashing across his eyes as he withdrew, inches from my face.

Before I knew what was truly happening, Link had turned to leave. But I grabbed his hand, confidence flowering, and pulled him round to face me as I leaned up and touched his lips with my own in one swift movement. They were warm, ablaze with long, hidden emotions that would have never dared to surface before now. I felt that they had been dormant for some time, sleeping restlessly underneath the earth of Link's heart, wanting nothing more than to sprout and grow.

Leaving the comfort of his proximity I drew away, looking up into his startled but happy eyes. I smiled, my hands resting on his taut shoulders. I didn't care that only a few minutes ago I had only thought of Link as a friend. This love, I felt was here to stay, and thinking about it more and more, I was beginning to see from my dreams exactly why I had fallen in love with Link.


	3. Burning Losses

AN: VERY IMPORTANT! This is where things start to get a little complicated. If anyone has any complaints or queries, say so in a review or e-mail me or something and I'll try my best to explain it.

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Chapter 3: Burning Losses

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Link's POV:

Every time I saw her, I couldn't help but feel the warm glow that surrounded my heart. Somehow, that single encounter had flung open such previously forbidden territory between us, and I was a helpless victim to the elation that coursed through my veins. Sometimes she would beckon me to join her for a walk in the courtyards and on nearly every occasion I felt that same tingling sensation in my hands when she reached for it, clasping hers tightly in mine.

But while my days were almost perfect, basking in Zelda's company, my nights were still haunted, but not by the same dream anymore.

When I closed my eyes, the skies wouldn't fade into the pale blue of a summer's morning, but remained the dark, gruesome colour of death and greed. Black storm clouds riddled the sky, just waiting to unleash their torrents of rainfall and their terrifying roars of thunder. The wind would whistle and shriek like a thousand monsters turning over in their graves, carrying with it the stench of their rotting carcasses. I would shiver, freezing in the chilling death-wind as I stood on the broken battlefield, the dust from the fallen rubble and the molten slag in the air irritating my senses further.

But as I turned around, there was one ray of shining hope and light standing there. Zelda would look at me with immortal concern, the shine never dwindling from her beautiful eyes. Then a small voice would call to me from above and there hovered my longest friend, Navi. But that brief calm before the storm would soon be shattered, for the ominous rumble and thud of something amongst the piles or rocks tore our soft gazes from each other, Zelda's echoing gasp ringing through the tense and thick air. It was then that the clouds and nature rebelled in their wake, plaguing the dying remains of Hyrule with their maelstrom of hatred, veiling the entire land with a blanket of darkness.

Ganonndorf burst forth, sending stones and fatal sized deposit flying into the air with a mighty bang, his breathing soon becoming the only thing I could hear in the deafening silence. His eyes glared a lurid and sickly yellow in the festering darkness and a dim light of the same colour would engulf the decaying man, transforming his limbs into a raging, reborn monster of true terror: Ganon. The battle would unfold before me as I felt myself twist and turn in my own sleep, wrestling with the horrid memory as reality called me back to the bright sunshine of the new Hyrule.

Snapping my eyes open, I leaped out of my bed straight onto the floor to dodge one of Ganon's colossal blades that I could see coming with invisible speed toward me. I was breathing hard, sweat beginning to bead on my forehead as I collected myself from the soft carpet, my hands still shaking from holding the Master Sword so tightly.

'I must have dosed off…' I thought, as the last thing I remembered thinking about was Zelda before the skies grew dark.

I splashed my face with icy cold water, cooling the hot nerves that were boiling in my cheeks. If what Zelda had told me was true, then how could time be replaying itself? …How could I have been that wondrous hero?

"Link?" an all too familiar voice called from outside my door. "Can I come in?" Pulling on my tunic and straightening out my clothes in break neck speed, I had completely forgotten to tidy the mess I had made with the bed covers. I opened the door and granted Zelda access into my room. Her face shot up in a horrified anxiety. "Link, this room is a state!" but her eyes relaxed and she grinned at me. "Come on, let me help you tidy this mess."

Apologising humbly to her, I aided her in pulling the overthrown blankets back onto my bed in some reasonable manner. "What happened?" she asked, more quietly than before. I blinked, not really knowing how to explain it. I looked away, fixing my eyes on an interesting spot in the carpet, thinking desperately of the right words. "Link," she was sounding all the more scared with every word she spoke. "Tell me. Was it the same as last time?"

I shook my head. "I was fighting Ganon." I said, earning a wide-eyed stare from the distressed woman beside me.

"It's starting to happen," She mumbled to herself, eyes cast downward. "Time is beginning to change… I saw it in my dreams Link," her head tilted upward and she spoke directly to me. "The Temple of Time, there was a crack all the way down to the Master Sword's chamber. It had broken in two, and I saw myself standing on the other side of the tear…Link, time is being unravelled as we speak. If time begins to shift permanently, we could all be stuck in an ever changing world… Ganon could be freed and then…all of Hyrule would fall." Her eyes had moved elsewhere, contemplating all the possible consequences.

"But Zelda, how do we really know if this is happening?" I questioned, but she didn't seem to have heard me. She now had her back to me, her arms hugging herself firmly. "Zelda?"

No sooner had the words left my mouth did the walls begin to flicker and hazily change colour again. A great earthquake rumbled underneath my feet causing me to lose my balance, and once again the red carpet glimmered beneath me suddenly falling away, dropping me down with an unnerving speed. I cried out Zelda's name, and I saw her banging on a frozen capsule of green glass. But a bright light flashed in my eyes, and before I could shield my face, I landed with a painful thud on something hard and…earthy?

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Zelda's POV:

The sea winds brushed their salty moisture against my face as I stared anxiously out on the rolling waves that stretched as far as the distant horizon. I knew that I should never have let him go…I should never have agreed to letting him leave Hyrule…again.

I sighed deeply. Once again I had managed to break Hyrule to its ruin. My first mistake was involving Link in the first place. Had I never met him, I wouldn't be feeling this lonely right now. Ganon had followed Link that night and had stolen the Triforce of Power, bringing Hyrule into the darkest age it had ever seen. But I been foolish enough to send him away, back to his own time, with the entire world along with him. Just after we were married he was called away in a new search for his lost friend Navi. I had let him go out of the love we shared, but I had always been wary that his spirit would soon long to roam the hills and countryside of Hyrule, for he was a born adventurer. It was in his blood. But that was a good twenty years ago now…and never have I once seen his beautiful face yet.

I felt tears prick at my ageing eyelids and I hastily rubbed them away, the wind erasing the remaining droplets as it carried them away with its gentle breeze. The light had long since sunken over the thin line of white surf bordering the world, giving way to the fierce night forces that would soon terrorise the seas in the dead of night. Sometimes I would still lie awake even in the early hours of the morning, listening to the crashing of the waves against this derelict mountain.

"Mama?" a small voice called from behind me. I turned to see my daughter clutching a sodden, stuffed bear in her tiny arms. Stitched onto it's head was a long green cap just like… "Link fell in the water again." She said, her eyes looking down on her companion, causing her blonde curls to fall into her face.

"Well, we'll just have to let him dry out then won't we?" I said, forcing a smile as I got up from my seat by the glass-less window and picked up my dearest little girl in my arms. Our home wasn't much; a dingy corner of a cavern shared by so many other homeless villagers. But being the ringleader of this bunch of survivors, I had been given the most secluded, most private quarters of the cavern to live in with my daughter. "Come on, its way past your bedtime young lady." I said soothingly as I placed her underneath the covers of our bed. Being short on supplies meant that many things had to be shared between us, and that included sleeping space. But I found a comfort in lying with my daughter in my arms, because somehow it seemed to ease the longing in my aching heart for Link to return to me.

She groaned in protest, still holding her wet bear securely to her chest as the seeping water extended to her shirt, creating a spreading circle of moisture in the fabric. "But Link isn't dry yet!" she cried innocently as I draped the handmade blanket over her. Impa had made it for her when she was still just an infant…but even time gets the best of some people, for she too passed away recently, leaving me utterly alone in this world. All I had now was the warmth and love of my daughter…

"Tell me a story!" the small girl said happily, bringing me out of my thoughts. Her blonde hair bounced around her eyes as she scrambled up from the floor and rested her bear against the crackling fire in the corner of the cavern. Smooth pebbles outlined the flickering flames and the dark brown toy was sitting in her lap as she sat down, looking at me with her big blue eyes.

I sighed again, and came to sit down beside her, resting my chin on her head as she climbed into my lap. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I breathed in the salty scent of her hair, closing my eyes briefly as I savoured the wild, natural smell of our surroundings. Wild…just like Link had once been…

"Tell me the one about the Hero of Time!" she said, and instantly I cringed at her naïve words. Talking about Link had always been a hard subject for me to contend with, and even looking at the bear that was perpetually in my sight reminded me of him. I sighed yet again, and prepared myself mentally for the story that she so often requested.

"Ok," I said retaining the weariness in my voice. "Long ago, there existed a kingdom where a golden power lay hidden. One day, a man of great evil found this power and took it for himself, and with it at his command, he spread darkness across the kingdom. But then…just as all hope had died, a young boy clothed in green appeared as if from nowhere. Wielding a blade that repelled evil, he sealed the dark one away and gave the land light. This boy, who travelled through time to save the land, was known as the Hero of Time."

"What happened after that?"

"He saved the princess that the evil one had captured, but then came a day when a fell wind began to blow across the kingdom, and the great evil once again crept forth from the depths of the earth. The people believed that the Hero of Time would again come to save them. But the hero did not appear." My voice was quivering more with every word I spoke, and I lifted my head away from my daughters to glance out of the window, rocking my daughter back and forth like the waves outside.

"Why?"

"No one knows. Some say the holy power given to him by the goddesses was taken away when he left the kingdom…Others say he vanished into the oceans that swallowed the kingdom." But through all these musings, I didn't want to think that my dearest Link had died in some far corner of the world. I wouldn't believe that he had fallen victim to disease or indisposition in some gutter-less road, or had been tossed aside into some ditch where he would rot until the waters buried him deep beneath my reach.

I felt the tears threaten to fall from my eyes once again, but this time I couldn't hold back the cracked dam of emotion, and with a terrifying wail, everything was let loose. Crystal tears streamed from my eyes and I cried aloud, forgetting that I held my daughter in my arms. The droplets of my broken heart splashed down onto the small girl's hair and I pulled her closer to me, hoping that she would ease the horrible pain stitching its way through my chest, and stop the needle of loss shredding every last piece of dignity I possessed. I whispered words that meant nothing to her in her ear, and told her so many things I'd never had the courage to say through my delusion. Usually when I told her the story only a tear managed to leak through the walls I had encased my dying heart in, but tonight the well of my thoughts had overflowed and flooded the soft foundations, tearing away everything that had kept me going through life until now.

My head began to buzz with a nauseating ailment and as the rivers of tears ceased to a mere stream. My daughter, who had been sitting completely motionless throughout this, reached out toward the fire and picked up the drying out bear and turned around in my arms. Her little hands were holding out the animal, and looking down at her with tear-stained eyes I gently received her gift of condolence. But as I looked closer, her eyes too burned with unshed tears and all at once she rushed into my arms, kneeling in my embrace so her head was level with mine. We both cried together, mourning the loss of the father and husband that neither of us had.

"I'll never leave you mama," her tiny voice trembled. "Never ever, ever."

"I know," I whispered. "I know."

* * *

Link's POV:

As I opened my eyes I saw trees criss-cross above me, streaming the light in small rays around me. I could feel a bouncy grass lie underneath my back and I could hear the sounds of the wildlife chirp and fidget in the air. I sat up and rubbed my groggy eyes with the back of my hand, wondering where in Hyrule I had been deposited after falling through, what I presumed, was a time shift, for I was no longer in the castle, and Zelda was no where in sight.

My heart began to beat tenfold, and I immediately stood up and listened intently for any sign of life…or danger that may be lurking behind the peaceful façade of the shrubs and greenery. A sudden raspy grunt came from behind me, and I jumped in alarm. Spinning round I came face to face with the darkened muzzle of the chestnut red mare I had been travelling on.

'Wait, I never came here on a horse…' I thought.

"Epona you scared me." I said letting out the breath I had been holding ever since I had woken up.

'Maybe this is in the future,' I thought, as I stroked the gentle horse's neck with my hand. 'But why did I leave the castle?'

Hoisting myself up onto her saddle, we rode together a little further until we came to an abandoned clearing in the middle of the eerie forest. The slithering hiss of the rain began to tear through the sky as soon as we were out into the open, and as I looked up to the sky, the same rumbling black clouds from my dream earlier today were pinned across the stormy sky. Turning Epona's head around with the reins I started back for the protection of the forest, wanting desperately to get out of the barrage of soaking bullets that fell from the heavens. As I looked ahead, I could see Hyrule castle in the distance, standing proudly on the raised plateau as it stuck out of the woods that clothed the entire hillside. But my heart leapt to my throat as I saw even darker clouds hang over the white towers and walls, the driving sleet making it hard to distinguish anything at all.

I held my right hand above my eyes so I could possible see a little clearer, but it made no difference. Besides, there would be no point going back now just because of a storm. I was already too far out of the country, for the river a while back marked the borderlines that surrounded Hyrule.

'I'm out of Hyrule? But what about Zelda?' I thought rapidly. 'Where am I going, and just _whose_ thoughts were these cruising through my mind so casually?'

I walked Epona back toward the edge of the forest so we could both avoid getting a further drenching that need be. But then for a reason unknown to myself, I lifted away my right gauntlet and I stared for a moment at the back of my hand.

Fear then stole away every ounce of feeling that I owned, and my heart burned with worry and distress when I saw no Triforce symbol appear on the scared and battered skin. Not even a glimmer of a shine that would usually glow there on my hand. What could have possibly happened? When did the Triforce forsake me? Maybe because I left Hyrule…

Without a second thought, I kicked Epona hard in the sides and headed back to the border. With the Triforce missing, who knows what terrible atrocities could be happening in Hyrule. But one thought was constantly in my mind, and that was whether Zelda was all right. Question flew through my head as Epona broke into a gallop, the rhythmic beating of her hooves echoing through the empty trees and thudding on the damp soil.

It seemed a lot quicker getting back to the river than it had done coming out and while Epona still cantered on, I held the reins in one hand and checked my hand again, hoping with all possible luck that I might see the Triforce shine. But to no avail, the goddesses were indeed cursing me for ever making the decision to leave Hyrule.

I had only left Hyrule once before and that was on a journey to Termina in order to search for my long since disappeared friend Navi. I had been unsuccessful in my search and had wearily returned to Hyrule. But it was strange. The Triforce hadn't abandoned me that time, so why should it this time? I shook the thoughts away, turning them back to Zelda's welfare, hoping that unlike myself she was safe and unharmed from any trouble.

I cleared the forest, bounding toward Hyrule castle and I galloped across the drawbridge and through the empty market. The darkness was making it hard to see anything at all and I strained my eyes to make sense of my surroundings. The wind came careening down in strafes and rampages, blocking out Epona's rumbling hoof beats on the stone cobbled floor. But even through the whining, I could swear that I heard another horse coming toward me. I looked forward and saw it's white coat gleaming through the darkness, a cloaked figure in the saddle. But with the ever changing winds as I passed the mysterious rider, their soaked hood flew off their face and out of the corner of my eyes I saw long blonde tresses flow in the wind behind them.

Just as I was about to call the woman I loved so much, another horse came galloping beside me, so close that his leg rebounded off my own and a dark invisible arm shoved me out of the way. A whiff of his stench wafted to my nose and I instantly recognised it with a fearful pounding in my chest. H-How was it possible? Before I could even move to pursue my dear wife's attacker, I felt my body being sucked into something behind me, and the growing darkness lifted me out of Epona's saddle and pulled me back into a drowsy sleep as I slumped off my horse, never hitting the floor.

---

A painful throb beat through my head as I awoke for what seemed like the third time today, finding myself back in my room, in the exact position I was before. Zelda too lay unconscious in front of me and I picked myself up, ignoring the annoying pulse knocking against my skull. I shook her shoulder lightly, shocked to see tears ravishing her cheeks as she curled in a human ball, grasping her arms tightly.

"Zelda, wake up." I called softly as not to alarm her. At once she snapped her eyes open and looked up at me, more tears filling her glazed eyes.

"Link," she said breathing my name before encircling me with her arms. We both whispered thoughts from where ever we had just been transported in time, each confused by what the other said.

But once again, that brief moment was not to be as a great explosion ripped through the silence causing us to both jerk away from each other. I pulled Zelda up off the floor and we both hurried out of my chamber to see what the cause of the commotion was. Screams pierced the air and maids and servants began running wildly in and out through doors, crying terrible words that I cringed to hear.

"He's alive! Goddesses save us all!"

"The Evil King has returned!" and at once I froze and pulled off my gauntlet just like I had done before. The Triforce was no where in sight.

Zelda looked at me with wide eyes, and inspected her own hand. On the back of her lilac glove appeared the Triforce, one triangle shining on the material.

"The Triforce! It's broken apart!" she said indicating my hand.

"But how?"

"I don't know." Her voice was subdued amidst the chaos. "Link, play the ocarina! Maybe we can turn back time to before this happened." She said, a renewed optimism burning in her eyes. With fumbling fingers I searched my pockets and pulled out the shining blue instrument. I played the tune like I had done before, holding Zelda to me as we were both taken from this world and lost to where ever time would leave us. I didn't know whether we would go forward or back, through years or small minutes. All I knew was that we were fleeing what Zelda had predicted, and that the breaking of my Triforce somehow had something to do with it.

* * *

AN: Wow, long chapter. As I said earlier, if anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask. This is going to be hopping in and out of various times from now on, so if any of you want an explanation, I'd be more than happy to give it to you. Also I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed again!

MidnightStarfire: You have nothing to envy my friend. You have wonderful skills yourself! Thank you for adding this to your favourites too!

Berlin'sBrownEyes: Don't worry, more fluff is on its way but I'll warn you now, it won't be quite the same as before. And you CAN write good kisses.

zeldaqueen: blushes Yes, I liked writing that part too. Wow, I feel so special; I don't deserve such credit! ; I can't begin to thank you enough. Words like that really mean a lot to me. Thank you! :D

LainieG304: blushes again I try my hardest to make my description good, and sometimes I think I go a little overboard. But if that's a good thing, you've got more of it coming!

anyone: I'm glad you like it!


	4. Reunited Times

AN: IMPORTANT! Here's some information that you might need to understand about what will happen in this chapter and future ones. If you're still confused, say so. If you DON'T want to find out but want to work this out for yourself, ONLY read the very last paragraph.

* * *

Ok, my theory is that when Zelda sent Link back in time at the end of OoT, she turned back time for all of Hyrule, therefore resulting in this story's Link and Zelda being the same ones from OoT (despite what I said in chapter 1). Now here is where things begin to get a little tricky. Technically I'm telling two stories at the same time: Dead Letters, and what I believe happened in order to link all the games together. This is why so far Link and Zelda have been taking on different personalities, because they've been transported into the past/future and have become their past/future self, with memories etc from that time too.

Now Link, as I said in the last chapter, left Hyrule and like in the Wind Waker legend, the Triforce spilt and Ganon returned. But Zelda remained in Hyrule and is the same person throughout this story, therefore changing in character to fit the time when Link and her are in the future. However, Link, because he left Hyrule and it's magical boundaries, retains his body and doesn't inherit any new memories (although really there is his future self out there somewhere). But now being within Hyrule's magical boundaries, he is now completely separate from the events happening, much like a new person born into the world. In some cases there will be two Links, because a new Link (in that time) has arisen to save the Princess, but these two Links are NOT the same person.

* * *

Oh, before I forget, there's also some maps you people should look at in order to explain this. If you go to the link on my profile you'll find that in the combined Legend of Zelda and Link's Adventure (the very first Zelda games on the NES) game map, Death Mountain, the graveyard and the Lost Woods are almost in an identical position to where they were in OoT, with the exception of Zora's Domain which I'll explain later. To try and keep things simple, I'm calling the OoT map, Central Hyrule, the Legend of Zelda Map, Eastern Hyrule, and the Link's Adventure Map, Northern Hyrule. Right, I think I tried to explain that in the most coherent way possible. On with the story!

* * *

Chapter 4 - Reunited Times

* * *

Link's POV

"Hey, young man, are you all right?" an old, but concerned voice shook me from the heavy slumber in which I found myself in. I opened my eyes and saw a long waterfall of white hair tumble untidily down into my face, and small grey blue eyes peering down at me from its peak. Sitting up, an old man withdrew and knelt down beside me steadily, his bones creaking ever so quietly as he bent his knees. He was veiled completely in a red cloak, something I would have thought would have been a little too predominant in this…seemingly wooded area. Only his head poked through the top of the billowing scarlet creases, but even then there was a hood to otherwise conceal his face.

"Do you remember what happened lad?" he said, staring curiously at my face. I shook my head, wondering how I'd been transported to the forest. I was meant to be in the castle!

"Umm…Do you know where Hyrule castle is?" I asked.

"Hyrule Castle? What in the goddesses' name do you want to go there for? No one's been to central Hyrule ever since Lord Ganon overthrew the monarchy. The castle's gone, the King and Princess have deserted us…even here in the east it's not safe. Up north is where you'll find the towns and villages. There ain't nothing worth over yonder my lad," He said gesturing his head westward. "Not since that accursed Hero abandoned us all." He added grumbling. "Who would have thought leaving the country would have allowed Ganon to be resurrected eh?"

"W-What did you just say?" I stammered, observing the old man's last sentences. Was he speaking of the 'Hero of Time'? My thoughts flew momentarily back to my dreams. Ganon had called me that…I had been this Hero but how was this really all _my_ fault?

I couldn't understand it; I hadn't done anything except live through those awkward yet peaceful moments with Zelda and fought the Great King of Evil, all while I was sleeping!

"Ah, I hear folk have been saying that the very moment the Hero left us, Ganon broke out of his prison and with no Hero to stop him, he took over the entire castle! The princess and her father were lucky and they managed to escape, but no one knows where they are now." He said, his voice growing quieter as he continued.

Then it hit me, smacking my face like cold water.

The dream I had had earlier, that must have been when it happened. The breaking of my Triforce must have destroyed the barriers the sages created in the Sacred Realm, and Ganon must have escaped during that moment of weakness…which means that I need to find those Triforce pieces and seal him away again! Those horrible dreams that had been recurring over and over again finally made sense. The battle… when Zelda sent us back in time… All of that must have been in the past, and now…with the crest not appearing on my hand…this must be…the future!

"But if it's not safe here, then why are you all alone?" I said, bringing my mind back to the problem at hand.

"Ah," he said smiling, narrowing his wrinkled face into a relaxed grin. "I be an old travelling wise man from the north, seeing that I help such people as yourself find their way to safety."

'Surely he's far too old to be protecting people? I don't think he'd be able to protect himself, let alone others.' I thought, soon casting it away as he helped me up from the ground, handing me a sword.

"Here, take this. It will help you find your way." He said, pushing the gift into my hands. I thanked him gratefully and stared at the long blade with awe. It was a shining silver sword, looking as if it had never been used as it glimmered in the sunlight. Its red copper hilt was rich and vibrant, and as I grasped it in my hands I felt a small shock of electricity dash up my arm. I smiled; turning round to show Zelda…who up until now I thought had been with me. But I turned round to empty air.

"Y-You didn't happen to see a young woman around here did you? She's about the same age as me… Long blonde hair, about…this tall?" I said levelling my hand just above my shoulder to indicate Zelda's height, mentally slapping myself for not noticing or asking sooner.

"Ah, no, I'm afraid not lad. I only saw you here when I came by." He said, his face dropping to an anxious despair. I too felt my eyes lose their happy gleam they had possessed just seconds ago.

"Are you sure? Do you remember anyone at all like her that you've seen today?" I pleaded, my feet itching to run and find her. The old man rubbed his chin as he looked to the sky, deep in thought.

"Hmm…Now that you mention it, I think I saw someone running in the forest a while back, but they were a little taller than that and much older than you my boy. I'm sorry I can't be anymore use to you."

It wasn't much, but that could just have been his misinterpretation. "How far back?" I asked.

"If you keep going in that direction," he said pointing north-west. "I'm pretty sure I saw them around those parts. But I'll be warning you lad, strange things have been happening up with the Zolas. Ever since that star came from the sky, they've been acting mighty strange." He said ominously, and as he turned to be on his way, I called him back, wanting to hear more about these Zolas and what danger I might be letting myself in for.

"Sir, what are Zolas? Don't you mean the Zoras?" I questioned. The Zoras had always been a friendly race. Strange I'll admit, but amiable to be in company with.

"Zoras? Ah, that be their old name when they were civilised folk. Ever since Ganon took over the castle, they've begun attacking people, and even each other! Why, they even destroyed their own home! Now they run wild in the rivers and streams. All that's left is the old faerie spring by the cemetery. I'd be careful young lad."

"What about the star you were talking about?" I said.

"Ah, not too long ago a bright, golden star fell from the sky, landing right up by old Zora territory. I don't know what it was, I couldn't get a good enough look, but it was mighty strange it was."

"Thank you, thank you so much for everything. Take care." I said hurriedly, patting the old man on the back as I ran north-west toward the foot of the ever familiar Death Mountain, waving over my shoulder. I realised now for the first time that I was truly in Eastern Hyrule, a place I'd never ventured quite far enough to explore. I looked down at the sword I held tightly in my hand… I was going to need all the guidance I could get.

"And you lad," He called after me. "And you."

* * *

Zelda's POV:

The only sound I could hear was the panting of my own breath searching desperately for air and the stamping of leaves and twigs underfoot as I ran through the crowded woods, dodging the tall trees and shrubbery that littered the forest floor. My eyes darted in every direction, watching for dangerous tree roots that might threaten to pull me down to the ground…and for that monstrous creature that had been stalking me nearly all day now. Its dry, wet slobbery pant was enough to make my skin crawl with chills even though the sun was blazing in the sky above me.

The monster seemed to enjoy playing this idle game of pursuit, then crawling away into thin air again, only to leap out of the bushes every time I paused for breath. This time I had kept running, not wanting to fall victim to it's trap, and I certainly didn't want to be the Zola's dinner. If I could just get to Death Mountain, I could meet Impa and then we could safely cross over to Northern Hyrule and wait this reign of tyranny out in the Northern Palace Ganon hadn't yet penetrated…hopefully.

I would more than gladly have transformed into Sheik at this present moment, but Ganon had already seen through that disguise, and it would be indeed foolish to try and elude him again. So instead I had cut my hair shorter, with nothing more than the small sword I always kept with me while I travelled, so it fell a little way past my shoulders, and donned a simple peasant garb that was turning out to be quite comfortable.

Suddenly I found myself whirling forward, falling hard onto the earthen floor as pain seared through my head and my ankle. I guessed the hard, knobbed surface on which my head now rested upon was similar to that which had tangled itself with my foot, snaking its wooden coil around it. I cried out in agony as my hand shot to my forehead, holding it carefully as I propped myself up on my elbow. A thick red liquid oozed onto my fingers, trickling down the digits as well as my cheeks, slithering coldly against my shaking face. My ankle throbbed in pain too and I felt it swelling to double its size right there and then, as it lay trapped within the arching and curved roots.

But no sooner had I uttered the cry, the gushing and groping of the Zola's breath hissed through the silent air. I gasped, covering my mouth and dared not to breathe. I could hear it creep closer and closer as bushes rustled and seethed noisily, letting the creature push through the hedges of green leaves without so much as a fight. Within seconds I could smell the polluted and watery odour of it's amphibious scales and I cringed, crushing my eyes closed as I heard it gasp with delight having pushed back the branches veiling my lying and snared form. It's slimy wet fingers trailed their webbed fins over my face and I felt as if I would throw up that very moment as it slipped its bubbled tongue across my neck.

I struggled and writhed in disgust, feeling the overwhelming pain boil within my foot, and the sickening lump fester in my throat as the Zola continued its assault, scratching and carving at my arms as I cried out for help. Gathering all the hatred and loathing that I felt for the beast, I tried punching it square in the face with a tightly clenched fist, but it only seemed to encourage the creature further.

'If only I could get my dagger,' I thought angrily. It was lying underneath me, clipped securely to my belt. I cried out one last time, knowing that in truth my time was very near, but my ears sang when a strong shout answered my call.

"Zelda? Is that you?" a masculine voice called, still some way off, but my heart stopped when I heard his lost voice.

"LINK!" I cried again and again like mad woman each time getting louder, flailing my arms around even more than before. I couldn't believe it…He'd come back!

"Zelda!" his voice was much closer, and suddenly the Zola shot up into the air briefly before falling limply across my stomach, a sharp sword driven into its back.

I looked up toward my saviour, shielding my eyes from the shining sun. Could it really be him? As I squinted in the bright light I recognised the green tunic and the green hood seated proudly atop his golden hair, falling in front of his beautiful blue eyes and I knew at once that it was him…Link. Truth be told, I knew it was him the second I heard his voice, but after these long months of being alone, I had begun to wonder if I would ever see Link again. That fateful day a couple of months ago, since he had left in search of his friend Navi, he had never returned, not even with the news of Ganon returning and of him extending his empire all over Hyrule that was running like wildfire through my fallen country… But now that he was here, everything would be all right. I knew it would.

In my excitement I grabbed Link's hand and pulled him down to me, engulfing him in a fierce hug. It seemed like years since I'd held him in my arms and I felt tears pricking in my eyes from the sheer overwhelming sense of him being right here with me.

"I missed you," I whispered. "I missed you so much, but now you're finally here. I thought I'd never see you again!" The tears broke the walls of my eyes, and cascaded down my cheeks in a glorious stream of happiness. I kissed his face all over, leaving the hot trail of my lips in a random pattern across his startled face.

But something wasn't right.

* * *

Link's POV:

She _looked_ like Zelda …she _felt_ like Zelda…and her _name _was Zelda. But I knew with a dreadful truth that she wasn't MY Zelda.

All of a sudden this woman that was at least ten years older than myself pulled me violently down to the ground and my face was stuffed into her short, choppy hair. If I hadn't had seen her before, I would have sworn blindly that it really had been Zelda when I heard her voice speak so softly against my skin. The sweet tone of her words was almost enough to drive me to insanity as I knew without a doubt that this was actually the Zelda I knew and loved… but she had changed so much…

Her ivory skin had been coloured a raw but healthy peach, and her once sparking sea coloured eyes were a dull grey blue, sunken into her hardened face, tired and weary from what seemed days of travelling. It was a rare occasion when I saw Zelda without her ruby head ornament too, and it was probably the biggest shock, apart from her mauled hair, to see her forehead so…bare.

"What happened?" I said placing my fingers over the naked skin of her face, shuddering as I felt that all the delicacy had vanished.

"Ganon…H-He came back and…and…oh Link!" she cried, sounding on the verge of tears. She couldn't continue any further and she pulled me closer to her again, snaking her arms around my back. "I'm so glad you're back." She whispered finally. "I thought I lost you…I was so afraid. Please…don't ever leave me again! Promise you'll stay here with me." Her voice was nothing more than a mere breath, floating on the wind's breeze.

"I promise." I said as she pulled away to look at me.

"You haven't changed at all." Her voice still wavered as she brushed away my dishevelled hair out of my face. But as she moved, pain shot through her face as she cringed, bearing her teeth down to the ground as her supporting elbow crumbled beneath her. Spying her trapped foot I knelt from my place on the ground and heaved my new blade out of the Zola's hide and hacked carefully at the stubborn root curling defiantly around her ankle.

Zelda struggled through the earth, and muttered something as her foot slid from the suspended branches, falling hard onto the ground. I watched her try to stand up, but her leg had been rendered lame and useless and I caught her clumsily before she went crashing down once more. Her hands reached out for support, leeching onto my green sleeves as I tried to steady her and suddenly I became increasingly aware that our faces weren't all that far away from each other. I didn't quite know why she had changed so much, but with her age Zelda had nearly grown taller than myself, and as I helped her stand, her dull blue eyes regained their life and vitality.

There she stood, leaning ever so slightly against me as she rested her limp foot lightly against the earth and though there was no real reason for us to be standing so close now, I couldn't help but remain rooted to where I was, relishing the comfort of her presence. There was something so much more mature about her, and I could see it in her smiling eyes.

Our noses hovered together like indolent fireflies, brushing each other's face with the gentlest strokes and I felt a growing confidence from when I had last tasted the sweetness of her lips. I wasn't afraid anymore, and boldly I silenced her grinning mouth with my own, the exact same scent and intoxicating aroma filling and flooding my senses again.

"Are you all right to walk?" I murmured against her. Zelda opened her eyes and nodded briefly before sliding her hands down the length of my arms to my hands, locking her fingers tightly in mine. "We shouldn't stay here any longer," I said. "More monsters may be lurking about. We need to keep moving."


	5. Beginning of the Reformation

AN: I would recommend reading what I've said to other readers here, just in case there's something there you also don't understand. Don't worry if you're confused. I was expecting this to happen. Also, I completely forgot to thank all you lovely reviewers in the last chapter. I'm so sorry, after some of you said such nice things too, I feel ashamed of myself XD. Thank you again to all of you who have reviewed so far!

ayachan21: Don't worry. You're right in saying that Link and Zelda are in a future world where Ganon is free. And because they've been transported to the future, the future's Link and Zelda are there too. Except the future's Link has left Hyrule and there's only the future's Zelda there.

zeldaqueen: You could say that. I'm not one for supporting the theory of about ten Links and Zeldas, and so yes, they are the same person. Don't worry, I'll get to Link to the Past later in the story

MidnightStarfire: I'm glad you see my descriptions that way! I aim to produce them so people can really see what they're like and now I know I'm doing a good job. Thank you! Oh, and the last chapter, I really enjoyed writing Zelda's part there, and I'm happy you liked it too.

Berlin'sBrownEyes: blushes You know what? I felt tears of happiness when I read you review for chapter 3. I can't even begin to tell you how much that meant to me. Thank you so much! As for chapter 4's review, you wouldn't believe how complicated the plot is going to get. I'll try to satisfy your excitement by trying to update regularly during my exams coming up.

LainieG304: Don't worry about being lost. To be honest I really had to think hard to make sure everything made sense myself, and I feel it's my job to make sure this makes sense to my readers, so I'll try to make things a little clearer from now on. But yeah, you'll need to do a bit of thinking to sort everything out. Sorry about that.

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Chapter 5 - Beginning of the Reformation

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Link's POV:

We made our way out of the forest without too many other dangers. A couple of strange Moblins patrolled the woods; their sad dog like faces drooping with boredom. Despite all the heavy armoured packed onto their shoulders, they weren't hard to defeat. Picking them off one by one Zelda and I hurried past, walking toward the streams of light that were becoming brighter and wider as the trees began to thin out.

The sun suddenly shone down on our faces as we stepped out of the decaying forest, crunching the dry brown leaves littering the ground. Shielding my eyes I looked around, recognising the old pool that stood stagnant below us. Zora's Domain had truly fallen. The water here was a thick green blanket of algae festering up the rocks and dead, broken trees. But there was no longer the rushing waterfall that fed Zora's River. The source had dried up, only just reaching below the ridge where it would usually tumble down as white foam. The land lay barren and deserted just like the old man had said.

"It's begun," Zelda said beside me. "One of the mighty races has fallen into Ganon's grasp. It's only a matter of time before the Gorons and Kokiri suffer the same fate." Her voice was low as if she were afraid she might disturb something that lurked beneath the bubbling pit of liquid germs.

"We'll find a way somehow," I said. "I won't let Ganon destroy Hyrule." Zelda turned her head toward me, smiling sadly. I returned the gesture, taking her hand softly in mine, telling her silently that I'd make everything right again. Once I had all the Triforce pieces again, I would seal Ganon away forever.

Just then, a rustling echoed from my left and I peered round the rock faces surrounding either side of us. A faint light began to hazily float up and down in the large cave down by the frothy shoreline. Like a firefly it hovered and fell in obscure patterns and drifted hesitantly out of the darkness. It was so small I could hardly see it, but something in the back of my mind identified it as a faerie. This must have been the old faerie spring the old man told me about.

We must be getting close to the where that star fell.

"Hello? Who are you?" a tiny feminine voice called from nowhere. The faerie flew closer to us, flying from side to side as she looked at us.

"I'm Link," I said. Immediately the tiny ball of light darted into my face, almost sending me backward. I could feel a warm glow emanate from her brightness, but even this close to me I still couldn't see past the overwhelming white shadows.

"Link!? _The_ Link? Oh thank Nayru you're here!" she gasped. "We've all been so frightened! The Zoras started acting all weird and we saw it! It came soaring down from the heavens and crashed over in the graveyard! They destroyed our sanctuary too!" At that moment I interrupted her fast and frantic speech.

"What came down? The star?" I asked, sighing in relief that we weren't too far from our goal.

"Yes, it was all golden! I'll come and show you!" she said excitedly. At once she took off, trailing small glittering dust after her. Zelda and I rushed after her, diving back into the forest after the careering ball of light that sped off in front of us.

As we ran, I noticed that the trees were becoming increasingly bare and skeletal and the sun no longer shone on our backs. Dark clouds were beginning to gather in the skies, spreading their billowing grey cloak across the entire sphere of the heavens. Blackened leaves once again provided a carpet on the dry earth and they cracked underneath our feet. The faerie brought us to an open plain, the chalky white rock of the cliffs encasing the graveyard in a long rectangle. Worn, weathered grey stones and crosses were hanging out of the mounds of leaves at peculiar angles and only some stood up straight. A thick mist drenched the air with a creamy moisture, making it difficult to distinguish shapes, and there was a growing feeling of scrutiny looming inside my head. Anything could be hiding up on those cliffs and we could be totally oblivious.

"Here, follow me!" the faerie chirped and hastily flew into the haunted place, soon becoming lost in the mist.

"Wait!" I called, not wanting to be too loud, just in case there really was something out there. "Here, take my hand. It wouldn't do well to get lost in here." I said to Zelda, and she took a firm hold on my gauntlet. Together we walked cautiously into the cemetery, and I narrowed my eyes to try and catch a glimpse of the faerie's trail.

It was eerily quiet, and a tense silence filled the air. I couldn't even hear the faerie or the slightest movement in the slight breeze. Suddenly a high pitched scream drilled through my high-strung ears as a flash of light appeared out of nowhere and came crashing into my chest.

"Watch out! Poes!" the tiny creature cried, and without permission she flew into the back of my shirt and I could feel a soft vibration on the back of my neck that felt oddly familiar. I'd had this feeling before…

But before I could pursue my thoughts any further, seven great monsters materialised from the fog, a large, staring blue eye in the centre of their large triangular heads. Their hung open mouths also appeared to be a faint blue, a slight residue shining in the back of their throats.

"These certainly aren't Poes," I muttered.

"I don't know what happened! I only sat down on the grave stones and suddenly they appeared out of nowhere!" the faerie said behind me.

"Link! Those are Ghinis," Zelda said quickly. "You can't destroy them unless you kill the King Ghini!"

"Which one would that be exactly? They all look the same!" I said unsheathing my sword. Zelda didn't reply but I noticed that she too withdrew a dagger and pulled down a mask of determination and courage. She's certainly changed, I thought silently to myself, as we both exchanged a quick glance before turning our concentration back to the oncoming threat. They were coming closer, and standing in front of Zelda I lashed out with my sword toward one of them, only to find myself running straight through it's clear, cloudy skin. I looked back and it was unaffected, ignoring that I even ran through it.

"Zelda! Try and find where the star landed!" I shouted while lunging forward with my sword. She nodded and disappeared into the white haze.

Again my sword made no difference and swiped through as if nothing were there at all. But this time the Ghini noticed I'd tried to attack it. Turning around slowly, it's huge eye rolled around and glared angrily at me, and all at once every other one turned and repeated the same strange action, sending a slight chill down my spine. Despite looking rather dopey, their fierce glare and gaping mouths transformed their faces into a frightening frown, and at once I felt adrenaline rush through my veins.

They formed a semi circle and closed in around me, slowly destroying the space between us as they gathered closer together in a tight sphere. Some began merging into their neighbour, creating a wall of multiple images that confused my vision. They blurred and mingled into a white blue sea of plasma and I felt I had to close my eyes as my head ached from trying to separate each creature.

But something in my subconscious took over, and as I shut my eyes my feet automatically moved to stand in a stance with my sword extended to the side. My knees bent and I felt a wave of energy flow all the way down my arm, cascading in spiralling pulses down to my hand through to the metal hilt of the sword. A warm buzz filled the air and when my eyes sprung open again, my blade whirled round in a fast circle, flying through each of the ghosts until it struck the solid master. Acting completely on this odd new instinct, I leaped into the air and thrust my blade downward, taking a large wheeling slice directly into the head of the Master Ghini. Its blank eye cringed and again I swiped at it to the side, bringing my sword across in one swift movement from the previous execution. It wailed in defeat and the slimy, glistening blue liquid of its mouth shrivelled to a dry, white leather, as did the blue pupil, cracking from the fleeing moisture that drained from it's body. Suddenly clouds of smoke filled the air as every single one vanished from sight and a whirlwind of leaves was left in their place scraping against each other.

'I remember those movements from my dreams…' I thought. The dead forestry slowly fell back down to the wet soil and trudging through the mounds of decaying shrubs, I ran into the heart of the cemetery. Only the whistling of a whining wind could be heard, as well as the soft mashing of leaves underfoot. I came into the centre of the forsaken holy ground and stared up at a magnificent mausoleum that towered in the middle of a paved square. It's chipped, grey stones were held together by a green moss that thrived in the cracks and dents and it held a mysterious aura within the large cross mounted upon worn, once intricately decorated slabs. I reached out to touch it, feeling somehow drawn to it's presence, when suddenly the comforting buzz on my neck blurted it's light in front of my face again.

"Don't touch it!" the small faerie yelled anxiously. "A Ghini might be hiding in there, or something even worse!" I didn't reply, but withdrew my hand. Yet I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away from the tomb. "Come on! I'll show you where I found it!" she called, being wary to make sure I was following her.

I looked at the large stone vault one last time before I turned to follow my new friend, and I saw her dart into the mist, contented that I was coming. But I only took a few steps before I carefully crept back to inspect the grey stone mausoleum further. Looking up at the cross, I saw a worn Triforce crest where the two slabs of stone crossed. Beneath it was written something incomprehensible having been weathered by cruel storms. At the foot of the cross lay a pile of neatly arranged stones, each decorated with beautiful carvings, and I could still see the stories they told. On each one there were two women on either side surrounded by fire and water, and a small Triforce in the top centre while an intricate border of weaving plants and vines extended along the horizontal edges.

In the middle of the first was a forest, and a beam was shining from the centre. The second showed a city in flames and a figure on a horse, while the third one I came to look at showed the Great Deku Tree, the Goron sage Darunia and Zora sage Princess Ruto each holding their spiritual stone raised to the heavens.

'This is becoming more and more familiar…' I thought, my eyes now itching to follow the tale of this person's life.

The fourth pictured the Ocarina of Time with a Triforce either side of it and the fifth showed all the six holy sages gathered round a fierce battle, a young warrior piercing the head of a fallen beast. I shuddered as I remembered the horrible dream bestowed upon me, and a horrible, sickening feeling began to creep into my thoughts. As I looked closer I saw that there was someone else amongst the sages, a woman in the centre who was larger than the rest. There were three sages on either side and her long flowing hair was still clearly visible on the old, worn stone tablet.

I stepped closer, touching it with my hand, not wanting to believe the answers running through my head. I looked at the next picture and saw that this one was turned portrait unlike the others. There stood the triumphant warrior from before, the Master Sword in one hand and the Ocarina of Time in the other. Under his feet were words I could still read and the growing nausea finally swept over my senses as I read the script.

"Here lies the Hero of Time, our saviour and champion of darkness. This courageous man defeated the evil lord Ganon and rescued all of Hyrule from his clutches. May the three dear Goddesses watch over this brave soul and welcome him into the gracious gates of heaven and glory where he may finally rest."

Then in larger letters, it read, "Link, Prince of Hyrule, Age 28."

"No," I said. "No!"

Suddenly I wanted to be anywhere but here, and casting my eyes down I ran as fast as I could away from the haunting sculpture of death, dodging in and out of much smaller gravestones. I wanted to find Zelda; I wanted to get out of this place and back home…

The mist was beginning to clear now and I saw the blurred figure of someone up ahead. "Zelda!" I shouted. She turned round and called my name, beckoning me to follow her. But instead I kept running and I threw myself at her, my hands shaking as I encircled her tightly.

"Link! - "

"What happened to me?" I cut in, my entire body trembling as her arms came slowly to rest on my back.

"What are you talking about?" she said nervously.

"I said what happened to me!" I said louder. "Why is my grave already built?" It was barely a whisper, but I heard her gasp beside me and her body froze for a moment.

"Link, you don't know how worried I've been…how long you've been gone…W-When Ganon came, you never returned… They all thought you were dead!" she said, and I felt the tears well in her eyes. "But I knew you'd come back, I knew it." Her hands came up around my neck and shoulders, and I think we were both comforted by the sheer presence of each other.

"Hey! I found it!" someone called in the distance. I let Zelda go and taking her hand we both hurried over to the source of the faerie's voice. I sighed in relief when I saw the glowing light in the grass, shining brightly even through the mist. The surrounding leaves and earth looked white against the sunlit object and I knelt down and cradled the tiny chunk of gold in my hands.

"T-That's a piece of the Triforce!" Zelda whispered.

As I picked it up it began glowing brighter and stronger until a blinding flash abruptly caused me to shut my eyes. I felt a warm spot on my hand begin to touch the divine essence of the Triforce and it bubbled on my palm, growing in heat and radiance. When I opened my eyes again, the shard had vanished from sight but had reappeared as a small golden dot on the Triforce crest that had also gratefully emerged on the back of my hand once more.

"Thank the goddesses," I breathed.

The fine glide of an arrow suddenly shoot through the air, barely missing Zelda and myself from where we knelt, and it skimmed along the ground until it gradually stopped. Before we knew it, a barrage of flying spears were upon us, and I grabbed Zelda's hand and ran as fast as I could back to the entrance of the graveyard, past my grave and onward toward the forest.

"Lynels!" the faerie shrieked in fear. Looking behind me as I ran, I saw a marching thong of horse like creatures behind us armed with swords and crossbows. But from their horse bodies rose a strong, chiselled abdomen and a man's torso, and upon that was a lion's head, and a thick manes of wire-hair stuck out at odd angles. They growled and roared something between themselves and their archers unleashed another onslaught of airborne death.

I pushed Zelda in front of me, back into the forest and she stumbled into the trees. "Go!" I yelled before turning back and suddenly shouting the words of a spell that I never thought I had known. "Din's Fire!" A whirlwind of fire sprung forth in a red light from my hand, burning in a bright sphere around me, rendering the arrows useless. But as I thrust my hands out, I couldn't see clearly beyond the flickering colours of red and orange, and a sweltering heat engulfed my senses. A thick sheet of warmth veiled it's hazy blanket over my eyes and out of nowhere, a small figure ran across the dead grass just in front of the rushing fire, a small bear clutched in its hand. I saw long curls of blonde hair being baptised in the fire and with a rising fear in my veins and I cried out to warn them, but the child kept moving, deaf to my cries. The flames washed over their tiny body and I cringed in guilt. The fiery heat disappeared and I only opened my eyes again when Zelda called my name in fear.

"Link! Are you all right?" I didn't reply for I was too anxious to know what became of the innocent child, but to my astonishment, they were nowhere to be seen. Just then I felt a familiar sweep through my head and I raised a hand to my temple. "Link?" Zelda's voice was much more frightened than before. "Hurry! We can still escape!"

I fell to my knees in confusion, earning a grunt from the pack of Lynels, and their swords sang in a shriek of metallic pleasure as they were unsheathed and swung through the air. I suddenly felt cold, and my vision was beginning to blur into different images…just like before.

"Link!" Zelda hissed urgently.

'If I disappear now, I can't save Zelda…' I thought. I can't let her die…I have to make sure she's safe…

With a yell of determination, I lunged forward in a head-spinning lurch, swinging my sword at the beasts, slicing their torsos with ease. A new-found strength that had long been dormant had awoken in my blood, and I felt it course through my hands and into my sword. With a blind passion I struck down each monster but with each swipe I felt a part of myself fade away into another world. My grip became weaker, my concentration less focused and my sword clumsy. When the last had fallen, I slumped back down to the ground feeling faint from exhaustion, and Zelda came rushing toward me, tears staining her cheeks.

"Link! W-Where are you going?" she whispered as she knelt in front of me. "What's happening to you?" she said, taking my pale-coloured hand in hers, watching me flicker and fade in the light. I too watched with a dreadful distress as I could hardly see my hand at all. "Don't leave, please don't go. Y-You don't know how long I've waited to see your face again," she said while lifting her other hand to rest on my cheek. But her eyes widened as her fingers never stopped against my skin, but went straight through me. I watched her face with sad eyes as I faded from sight, my consciousness being pulled away from this time.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to her.

"No!" she cried. "Link, please, I-I lo - " but I didn't hear anything else she said, for the darkness waiting behind my closed eyes engulfed me and shut down all my senses, and pulled me sluggishly back into the broken vortex of time. I only hoped that Zelda would be waiting for me wherever I ended up next…


	6. Unyielding Darkness

Chapter 6 - Unyielding Darkness

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Zelda's POV:

'He couldn't. He just couldn't leave me again…'

By the time I had lifted my head again, I found myself alone, with only the company of the wind to gently ease my suffering. I didn't know how long I'd been sitting there; my legs had lost all power and will to move. All I could think about was the ghostly image of my beloved's face, how pale he looked, and how he had vanished into thin air leaving nothing in his place. He had only just come back to me and now he was gone again, swept away like a newborn flame on the wind's river of air.

I didn't understand what had happened to him, but I couldn't even begin to ask myself such questions. I knew it would only lead me to a further turmoil, one from which I might never be able to rise from again unless I could find that hand that would smite the darkness and save me from my nightmares.

'Snap out of it Zelda,' I told myself. 'Impa is waiting for you at Death Mountain!' I picked myself up, and hastily brushed away my tears, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't shake the heavy weight that wrestled with my heart. The wound that I thought had managed to heal when Link first went away seemed to have been torn open again in one violent sweep, amplifying the pain all the more. 'You've got to keep going. You've got to make it to Death Mountain.'

But I never made it to Death Mountain. Before I could progress much further Ganon had caught up with my travels and every night when I was trapped in that dark, dank cell I remembered the terrifying kidnap over and over again. His dark ominous figure had been waiting there in the middle of the clearing, arms crossed over his chest, a wicked smile quickly devouring his lips. I remembered the sudden fear that leaped into my throat and the unheard screams as he lunged toward me, touching my skin with his dirty, blood stained hands. The next thing I knew was that I could hear water dripping coldly to the ground, and a gradual icy freeze creep onto my skin before I recoiled off the hard, uncomfortable floor to meet the eyes of my captor. The yellow orbs glared through the darkness and his white teeth grinned daringly through the murk.

He would come intermittently to check on me; the horrible creak of the door disturbing each moment my eyelids fell shut. Light would filter in from outside, and I could hear the flicker of the flames in the torches hung on the walls. I would shield my eyes from the blinding brightness, for I grew so used to seeing in the dark, I sometimes forgot what it was to see daylight.

But one time, for I knew not whether it was night or day, Ganon's cruel and chilling voice took a new tone from beyond the walls. If I hadn't known better, I wouldn't have been able to detect the fear and dread that haunted his words as he shouted at someone. I buried my head in my knees, not knowing what was happening, and too frightened to even dare look at what would come through the door that led to Ganon's chambers.

It was then that I heard a ghastly and cringing cry penetrate the thick stone walls and the dull thud of something falling on the floor.

"Curse you Link!" Ganon bellowed, chuckling to himself in pain. "You may have defeated me now, but I swear I'll defeat you for I can see the day that Hyrule will once again be mine!"

The one voice I'd come to memorise over the past months was now very weak as he spat out his last words, indistinguishable from where I sat. Then all fell quiet. The mighty beast had been felled… The door, bordered with a yellow frame of light, suddenly cracked open, spilling its golden rays into my vicinity and I looked up, seeing a dark silhouette against an overwhelming array of radiance.

For a brief moment my hope re-lit the long burnt out fire of my heart, and I scrambled to my knees, squinting to identify my saviour. Hoping against all belief I felt my anticipation spill over the borders of my entire body in a messy deluge that made me get up from the floor and stumble toward the bars that separated us. I could see him, and I felt my lips curve into a smile; something I hadn't done for a very long time.

'Was it he? Could it really be him?' I thought wildly. He stepped out of the light and the darkness fell upon his face. Reaching forward with his sword he hammered down on the lock and at once it broke and fell to the floor in a metallic click. And at that moment I too experienced the same sickening drop as that messy spill smothered the rekindled hope as quickly as it had been born.

It wasn't Link. Not _my_ Link…

---

Eventually I did meet Impa at the foothills of Death Mountain after parting ways with this new Link. It was uncanny how similar they looked; yet I knew in my heart that this wasn't the man I loved. This wasn't the same person who was as much a part of me as I was of him…

Our goodbye was brief, and with Ganon temporarily sealed in the Sacred Realm once more, the monsters were slightly less restless and blood thirsty. But I knew that the wind in the air was the beginning of a new crimson stained future, and that we must hurry before the weakened barriers of the heavens would allow Ganon to walk the plains of Hyrule once again. With Link's Triforce of Courage no where to be seen, there was only the power of my Triforce along with the sages to sustain the magical bonds that would seal Ganon away. Even the Master Sword had been lost in the traumatic overthrow of the castle. The Temple of Time had collapsed, burying with it the Master Sword and any hope of ever defeating Ganon permanently.

Once through the caves and passageways that led to northern Hyrule, our journey was much less eventful. Monsters tended to stray away from the footpaths and roads, and the times were a lot safer here than the wild forests of Eastern Hyrule. But with every step I took as we began to near the Northern Palace, I felt my eyes grow weary, and energy drain from my legs.

"What's wrong Princess?" Impa said beside me, her voice filled with concern.

"I think I'm just tired…That's all." I said exhausted. Impa was silent for a moment before speaking again, this time in a much more hushed tone.

"You don't think it's - "

"No, I'm just tired. I'll rest once we get to the Palace. It's only a little farther." I said interrupting her.

"Why don't we stop and rest here for a while? It would be better for the both of you." She said, a small smile gracing her old lips. My eyes widened in response and I felt my cheeks flush slightly. Walking faster, I declined her offer. Impa's old age must be affecting her more than I thought… As a sage she was immortal when residing in the Sacred Realm, but when she heard of the trouble in Hyrule, she took on her mortal form to help me, and as a mortal, she had begun ageing again…

I could see the castle now looming proudly in the middle of the lake; it's white walls glistening in the sunlight. My father had taken me here many times as a child, and I could still remember the carefree summer mornings when I would run through the flower gardens in the courtyards. The towers still stood tall against the midday sky and they sadly reminded me of my own home, now burnt to the ground and smouldering in ashes.

But that strange drowsiness still sapped away my energy, and suddenly in one repulsive wash, I sunk into a dark depth of cold sleep, the last thing I remember being the shouts and cries of Impa fading away under a new voice of fearful chills.

"Greetings Princess." I felt his cruel stare in the back of my head, and my voice became paralysed by the sheer sound of his words. "The walls of your fortress are slowly breaking," he said grinning viciously. "You didn't think you'd be able to keep me gone for good did you princess?"

I clutched my head in agony, wincing at each horrible word he spoke. "You'll never win Ganon!" I said, my words, to my disgrace, coming out as barely a whisper.

"Ha!" his deep voice spat in disgust. "Do you really think yourself so mighty princess? Without your Hero of Time you are nothing, a fly waiting to be killed by my hand! Mark my words princess, Hyrule will be mine!" His cackling laughter deafened my senses and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't block out his magic that was sweeping through my body like an infectious disease. I was lost in this sea of darkness, reduced to nothing in this black void, and to my utter shame, I realised that Ganon was indeed correct…

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Link's POV:

The blinding flash that veiled my eyes was abruptly torn away and I opened my eyes again to find myself staring at a floor that held the night stars in neat shining squares. The dark midnight blue stones, speckled with white covered the entire floor as I straightened myself up.

'Where am I now?' I thought to myself as I peered around the massive chamber. The room was so large that I couldn't even see to the very ends for the darkness shrouded the true capacity of the place. Attached to tall, magnificent pillars were torches that lit a dim circle around the area where I sat. As I gazed in awe at the majesty of the room, my eyes fell upon a small pedestal in the centre, where small steps covered in a scarlet red carpet led up to an altar of some sort. Candles were placed at each corner, their flames dancing brilliantly over a white cloth that…

Suddenly I heard a footstep echo through the air. "Who's there?" an elderly voice called sternly. "Who dares to trespass in such a forbidden chamber?" The voice was becoming louder and as I sat motionless I could see a faint blur of light slowly emerge from the darkness. The fire of the lamp illuminated a tall but hunched over woman clad in a long grey cloak, her long white hair falling well past her shoulders. She didn't look as if she would pose a threat, but I kept my hand on the hilt of my sword that was still clasped tightly in my gauntlet from before.

I stood up once I saw her more clearly and bowed in respect. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that I wasn't meant to be here." As I ended a loud clang emanated all around me and I snapped my head up in shock and pulled out my sword.

The lamp rolled toward my feet and I picked it up, about to hand it back to the old woman when I saw the fear and surprise in her eyes. "Who are you?" she said, her hands shaking over her heart. "You're a ghost aren't you? A ghost coming to play tricks on old Impa!" Her eyes narrowed and the cloak slipped from her shoulders revealing a much younger looking body, her muscles still toned well from battles. "Get out!" she said raising her voice.

"I-Impa?" I stammered. "Impa it's me, Link!" For a moment it seemed as though she'd believed me. Her eyes softened and she relaxed for the briefest of moments, but the mistrust quickly regained control of her actions.

"Be gone you wretched ghost!" Impa shouted as she threw a very well aimed Deku Nut right at my feet, causing me to fall over backward from the burst of light. I rubbed my eyes and stood up again. I didn't want to use my sword against her no matter what she tried to harm me with… "Why aren't you stunned?" she said quickly, her eyes showing her confusion.

"I'm not a ghost!" I said sheathing my sword.

She stared at me for a moment, scrutinising every inch of my body, much to my discomfort. Her eyes suddenly widened, and her hand slapped her cheek softly. "Goddesses, it really is you!" A stern look returned to her face, her thin white eyebrows furrowed. She rushed forward and took my hand. "Thank providence you're here! The princess is in trouble! Quickly now, come with me," she said hastily.

"What's happened to Zelda?" I asked, worry filling my thoughts. Did something happen to her in the forest? Did more Lynels attack her? Hundreds of questions rushed through my head, some finishing before they even started, but I couldn't shake them away, and Impa didn't answer my question. She only sighed and cast her eyes away.

"Ever since you left, terrible things have happened." She suddenly stopped walking and looked deeply into my eyes. "The princess has been so worried about you. I thought all hope was lost when I heard that she'd been captured by Ganon, but a brave youth saved her from his clutches."

"She what?" I said. "When did this happen?"

"According to Zelda, you came back to her, only to disappear. Am I correct?" she said avoiding my question. That wretch must have caught her after I left her… I felt anger seethe through my veins, and frustrated looked down to the floor, my hands clenched into tight fists.

"Yes," I muttered. "I couldn't save her…I wasn't there to help her," I said quietly, half mumbling to myself.

"Well perhaps you could help her now." Impa said as she continued up the carpeted steps to the altar. A large lump sat at the back of my mouth as she gently peeled back the white cloth to reveal a beautiful young woman, long locks of blonde hair rippling from her ivory face in sunlit curls and waves. Her hands lay across her stomach, as motionless and still as the pillars towering around her.

"Zelda," I whispered as I joined Impa at her side and knelt down on the floor. My chest rested sharply upon the edge of the stone slab and I gently touched her cold cheek with the back of my hand. Her skin was still as soft as the most tender flower petals and the look upon her face was still that of the princess I'd seen only what seemed like moments ago.

But then I quickly realised that although it might be only minutes for myself, it must have been weeks, maybe months that had passed in between these two moments. The subdued anger suddenly rose up again like a storm inside my heart.

"First she waited seven years, and now this…" I mumbled. But as soon as the words had left my mouth, my eyes widened from what I'd said. Those seven years kept coming back into my subconscious…those very first dreams… What was this life that I'd forgotten? How could I not remember what happened?

"What did you say?" Impa said curiously. She stepped closer to me, peering right into my face. "Not even the princess remembers what happened in those dark times. How is it that you do?" she said darkly.

"I-I don't know," I said nervously.

"Tell me Link, tell me what brings you here, even though you're supposed to be dead to the world." She said withdrawing herself slightly. Her eyes were still narrowed, and a frown knitted her eyebrows in a hard, unrelenting cold knot. I swallowed nervously, and slowly began my strange tale. Perhaps she would be able to help my find my answers and guide me in the right direction…

"I suppose it all started when I had these dreams."

"Go on," she said.

"Well, I dreamt I was this warrior fighting to save Hyrule from Ganon's evil reign. I remember fighting him, with all the memories and feelings of this warrior becoming a part of myself, and I can still remember them now." Impa nodded and beckoned me to continue. "It was then that these weird…time lapses began happening. I found myself riding far away from Hyrule, the Triforce crest broken on my hand."

"That was when you set off in search of your friend. No one ever saw you after that day, until now," she said pausing. "You said the Triforce broke, you mean it didn't appear on your hand?" I shook my head. "Ah, who was to know that only Hyrule could contain the three thirds of the holy triangle…" I looked at her quizzically. "Let me explain Link. I presume you know that when Gannondorf touched the sacred Triforce it split into three pieces." I nodded my head uncertainly, knowing that somehow she was right. "And you also know that Ganonndorf, Princess Zelda and yourself each carry one third of that Triforce" I nodded again. "The power of the two remaining Triforce pieces in our world along with the power of the sages are what kept Ganon sealed away in the Sacred Realm.

"For almost ten years Hyrule saw its Golden Age of prosperity and peace. Ganon's evil magic was trapped along with him in his prison and nothing could alter those forces that bound him there. But when you left Hyrule, it seems you broke that power, leaving only one Triforce to bear the weight of two, and with a weakened force to seal Ganon away, he overpowered the sages and broke free of the Sacred Realm. With each step you took away from the castle, the bonds between the two Triforces must have become weaker and weaker, loosening the restraints that held Ganon back. And when you finally crossed that border they must have been severed completely, causing your Triforce to break apart and be scattered all over Hyrule until another worthy hero would step forth and save Hyrule, with the courage found in the collected shards."

I stared in wonder at her, suddenly remembering what Zelda had said to me that morning in my chamber, her words echoing that of Impa's.

'All this happened because of me… How many people have I caused to suffer because of my actions? All I was concerned with was finding Navi…' I felt sick and rotten to the core of my heart, tears pricking at my eyelids. But I refused to let them fall. Despite being a terrible and utterly selfish person, I knew I needed to put right my ugly mistakes in the only way I knew possible…

"Impa, please tell what I should do." I asked.

"In due time Link. Tell me more about these time lapses you mentioned before." She said, insisting on learning everything I had to say.

"Well, it was soon after I started having those dreams, when suddenly everything would change. Images from a different time would merge with the present and sometimes Zelda and I were caught in those different times, only to wake up again in our own," I said pausing. "There's nothing more I can really tell you." She didn't reply for a moment, her eyes deep in thought while staring at the silent figure beside her.

"It would seem that time has been disrupted," she said very quietly. She turned her head away from Zelda's sleeping face to look at me again. "Link, you are the Hero of Time, the legendary hero who slew Ganon after seven years of his tyranny," she said very seriously. "The three goddesses chose you then, and I believe they have still chosen you to be Hyrule's saviour. First and foremost you must reform the Triforce of Courage. Without that Ganon will never be beaten, even by you." She placed her hands on my shoulders firmly.

"Link, you must listen very carefully to what I am about to say. When the princess and yourself sealed Ganon away, Zelda sent you back in time so you could live those seven lost years of your life. But she rewound time for the entire country as well. This way, the damage that Ganon dealt could be reversed and Ganon himself would be harmless, as the Sacred Realm is a place affected by neither time nor space. Because Zelda sent you back in time, those memories of your adulthood were not yet meant to be uncovered, as you were still only a child, so they were partially erased from your subconscious. Now you're an adult, those memories are beginning to unearth themselves from your mind, and this might be why they're appearing as dreams." She paused once more and withdrew her heavy hands from my shoulders.

She breathed deeply, her white hair shivering as she moved. "It would also seem that somehow time has been torn and severed, allowing you to fall into a time such as this. The only explanation I can offer you is that while you were searching for the sages, your time travel disrupted the flow of time, and maybe when Zelda performed such a large scale time travel is was disrupted even further. But time is a very delicate object and one must keep it in balance. When you finally grew up in those seven years, it must have evened the disruption. However when these dreams began appearing, from a time of the past, it must have caused time to split as you and the princess were living in two different times."

"But then that would mean that this world isn't the same one from my time," I said. "After I'd dreamt of leaving Hyrule and woke up in my own time, Ganon suddenly rose then. This can't be the same future that _my_ Hyrule holds…"

"That may be true, but history was not meant to slip in between two times. I believe our world must be the future of your Hyrule, had the time slips not have happened… This would be the path of time had it not been disrupted," she said.

"Then what became of the Hyrule I left when I came here?"

"That I cannot answer," she said. "But now you know. Perhaps when the time comes at the end of all this, you can change Hyrule's fate for the better. After all, for you the future has still to come. For Zelda, the future has already passed. Your princess must be out there somewhere, and I'm sure that when your journey is over and you return to your own world, you'll find her."

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AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! As pointed out by MidnightStarfire, I don't think I'm allowed to reply to everyone's review anymore otherwise they might take down my story, so I'm just saying one big thank you here. I hope this chapter has explained my confusing plot a little better. If anyone's still confused, say what you need explaining in a review and I'll try and e-mail you the answer rather than risk my story being removed. Also, from now until the end of June I have very, very, VERY important exams, so updating will be rather slow.


	7. Old Friends in New Times

Chapter 7: Old Friends in New Times

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Link's POV:

There were so many sights, smells and sounds roaming the air that I couldn't quite take it all in at once. People were rushing to and fro from street to street, opening and closing doors in their wake, some with pots balanced cleverly on their heads and others with wide wicker baskets tucked securely under their arm so it wouldn't be pulled from them in the onslaught of busy people. Shouts could be heard as well from all directions, piercing the already crowded atmosphere while selling all sorts of foreign foods and goods from overseas.

My journey had led me south to the town of Rauru, something that seemed odd to myself, as there were no such towns of this sort back in central Hyrule. Each race had their own dwelling usually undisturbed by outsiders, but here there were all the races mingling in one community body, living peacefully and working alongside each other. There were even a few Deku Scrubs fumbling their way through the hoards of people. It was sad to think that back home there would be nothing of the sort. The Zoras secluded themselves off from the rest of the world, as did the Gerudos. Some brave soul might venture into Goron City and the Lost Woods but the native races wouldn't dare leave their home.

Sighing, I pushed my way through the market area, apologising perpetually to unknown bodies I stumbled past. It wasn't until I was well out of the throng of voices that I heard the disturbing rumbling coming from my stomach. I suddenly realised that I hadn't had anything to eat since…technically this morning in the castle…for I assumed that all this had happened within the course of one day. But the more I thought about how long it had been since I had last eaten something, the more my stomach cried for it to be fed.

The late afternoon sun shone down as I searched for somewhere to eat, and it didn't take long until I saw a sign hanging over a door indicating the food and drink were on sale. Starving, I hurried inside before the waves of people swept me away. It was a fairly dim lit place, with only the sunlight streaming in from the windows with a few candles flickering on the walls. Old, circle tables were arranged on the wooden floor and as I walked into the restaurant, my boots sunk heavily onto the wood. Crowds of women, dressed in all different colours, were sat around one table talking in hushed voices. They eyed me suspiciously, lifting their gazes for mere seconds before looking back down again.

Before I could wonder why, a young woman came up to me and welcomed me to their café. She showed me to a table and I sat down, still uncomfortable as I felt patterns of stares follow my every move. I looked over to the women but they quickly turned away, pretending they weren't looking.

"What would you like sir?" the girl asked. I brought my head back to face her suddenly and it was the first time I had actually looked directly at her face. Her smile quickly disappeared from her face as she too stared at me in shock.

"M-Malon?" I stammered; unsure of whom I was really looking at.

"Link?" she said, barely a whisper. Malon dropped her notebook, forgetting that it had once been in her hand and peered at me as her long red hair fell in front of her brilliant blue eyes. "I-It really is you!" she said, just as shocked as I was.

A roar of quiet murmurs erupted from the opposite side of the room. Malon glanced sideways momentarily and I saw her eyes freeze. "Link," she said unsteadily while turning back to me. "I-I'm so glad to see you, father will be so happy you've returned!" she said louder, grabbing my hand firmly. She dragged me behind her, leaving me utterly confused. "Y-You've been gone for so long overseas we thought you'd never come back! Father's been wanting to see you so much since you left." Malon reached a door and pushed me through it with a gentle shove and I shuffled into the small back room while she shut it with a jolt of locks behind her.

"What in the goddesses name are you doing here?" she said angrily while taking my hand again and led me up the stairs. When I didn't answer she spoke again. "Don't you know you're meant to be dead? You left all those years ago and you choose now to come back?" she said in a harsh tone I'd never heard in her before. "Well a great deal that's going to do us now isn't it?"

"I-I'm sorry?" I said confused, overcome by the sheer rush of her actions. But then I suddenly remembered everything that had happened, and I apologised again, wondering how in the world I was going to try and explain what had happened…

"Sorry? Sorry isn't going to cut it Link!" Her hands were clenched in tight fists by her side and her thin eyebrows were furrowed in deep lines across her face. "You have no idea do you, how much we've suffered because of you? We lost the ranch and most of our horses because of you! We had to move here, cut off all our trade and live in fear, all because of you!" she cried pointing at me. She ran at me, slapped me hard and flung her fists against my chest, cursing me for ever leaving Hyrule. Tears of hate and betrayal flew from her eyes in air-born rivers and eventually her punches ceased and her eyes stained my tunic a dark green.

"What in the blazes are you shrieking about Malon?" a gruff voice came from an adjoining room. The door clicked and opened to reveal an old, hunched over man who white brown hair still clung defiantly to his head. Malon jumped away from me and I felt like I was back on Dodongo's Cavern, watching the King Dodongo rise from its slumber in front of me.

"Father!" she exclaimed. Talon's mouth dropped open as his narrow eyes set themselves on me.

"Y-Your majesty!" he choked out as he crumbled to his knees and pressed his wrinkled forehead to the floor. "Please forgive my daughter, she meant you no harm. I beg you forgiveness." He mumbled quickly.

"It's alright, really, you can…come up from the floor ok?" I said scratching the back of my neck. Talon lifted his head but still knelt on the floor, a woven rug beneath his knees.

"I knew you weren't dead, see, I told you Malon!" he said gesturing toward his daughter who merely stood with her eyes gazing at the floor. "How did you ever get back here your grace? Have you heard about the Princess?" Questions tumbled from his mouth at an extraordinary rate, but I only wanted to ask him one thing.

"You don't need to use such formalities Talon, call me Link," I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Malon raise an eyebrow and lift her eyes from the ground to look at me.

"But your - Prince Link, I am but a humble peasant. I couldn't call you by your first name only."

It had happened again; I'd been called a 'Prince'. I remembered reading it on my 'grave' and then I hadn't thought anything of it, but now I wondered how I had come to earn such a title. Before while I stayed at the castle I certainly hadn't been a prince, for I would have to have…married Zelda…

Talon cleared his throat, coughing hoarsely as he did so. "Bad times ail this world your grace. I don't know if you've heard, but Ganonndorf has risen again. This seems to be the only part of Hyrule he hasn't yet overthrown," he said solemnly. "Please, you must save us from him once again, I beg of you."

I knew that if I answered him I would never fulfil his request, but then again I couldn't refuse to help him. I looked around the room, trying to avoid Talon's old, pleading eyes.

"Will you, Link?" Malon asked as my eyes grazed over her. Reluctantly I nodded and assured them with a lying heart that I'd save them.

"Thank you your lordship, we are forever in your debt," Talon said while rising to his feet once more. He turned back into the room he had entered room, and disappeared.

"Link, I - "Malon began, but as soon as the words had left her lips, Talon came back in with something in his hands.

"Here, take this with you. Let it aid you in a time of struggle," he said smiling as he held out a very familiar bottle, filled to the brim with the creamy milk of Lon Lon Ranch. The ever-faithful cow still adorned the label that was bound around the circular tube, and I smiled in thanks, receiving the present gratefully.

A small pad of footsteps suddenly clogged up the stairway and there was a soft knock on the door. "Excuse me sir, but it's getting very crowded down here, and we need your help." A timid male voice called from behind the wooden frame.

"I'll be right down!" Talon said. The footsteps began their descent and soon disappeared again. "Come Malon, we've customers to serve. Please excuse us you grace. Good day to you and may your travels bring peace to us all." He said, gesturing for me to leave first. I thanked him again and led the way downstairs. It was indeed very busy and as we entered back into the main room of the house, the noise level increased tenfold as chattering voices rang through the air.

"Link, this way," Malon said quietly and I followed her silently out of the café and back out into almost what looked like a different street. The crowds had all disappeared and the road was barren except for a few people strolling down the dusty path, enjoying the crimson sunset blazing in the sky.

But as I looked back to Malon, her eyes were downcast again. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Come with me," she said and walked briskly past me. She led the way to this unknown destination, and I followed right behind her, wondering where she was taking me. Not once did she look back at me to see I was keeping up; she just kept on walking, her head high on her shoulders. The sunset made her hair glow a fiery red and orange, and as the wind blew gently through the empty streets, the light flickered and shone brightly in the flaming strands. She'd grown like Zelda had, and was probably much older than me in my current state as well…

We turned a corner into an alleyway from the main row of stone houses and Malon finally turned round to look at me. "You don't know how much trouble it's been keeping her for you, but I knew you'd return someday Link." She unlocked a door at the end of the alleyway and led me inside. We crossed through a living room of a very similar style to the café, and on through into a kitchen area. Malon unlocked another door and we were back outside again but this time bordering on a wide, open field close to the city walls. In the distance I could see the stone horizon bend round the edge of the grass, enclosing everything in a secure and tight circle.

At once I heard a whinny come from the fields, and a smile from the woman beside me told me to go to it. I ran toward the cantering mare coming toward me, and I threw my arms around Epona's neck when she slowed to a halt. She too nuzzled my shoulder and back with her muzzle, stamping her hoofs, impatient for me to ride her once more.

"We lost a few horses trying to save her," Malon said coming up behind me. "When she came back, I thought that you'd be there with her, but she came alone all the way back to the ranch. Everyone thought you had died," she said, her voice shattering with every word. "Y-You don't know how hard it's been, seeing her everyday without you…" Tears fell from her eyes and she turned around away from me.

I touched her quivering shoulder softly. "I'm sorry…for making you worry," I said. Malon looked at me from out of the corner of her glazed eye, parting the fingers covering her face so she could see me. She then slowly turned round to face me, withdrawing her hands from her face. Shining, silver lines trailed down her cheeks and the setting sun made them gleam like liquid fire.

"Take good care of her," she sniffed, smiling sadly.

"I will," I said.

"And…the princess. Look after her too."

"Yes," I said quietly after a while.

"You'd better get going," Malon said quietly. I nodded and we both led Epona back to the field entrance. "You can get back into the main street through there," she said pointing up a dirt track. "I think you want to go to Ruto town next. It's Northwest of the palace. Keep following the road toward the mountains, and you'll get there," she said, a rueful smile still gracing her lips.

"Thank you for everything Malon," I said. I took a hold of her hand and held it dearly in my two. "You will get your ranch back someday, I promise you." Her eyes began watering again and I encircled the crying woman in a friendly embrace.

"Thank you…for coming back," she whispered as I drew away. "Will you come and visit us again?"

"I'll remember," I said, cringing inwardly at the lies I had to tell her. She smiled again, this time a happy smile as I mounted Epona. I waved goodbye and once gripping the reins of my mare, we set off toward the town gates, never to see Malon or Talon ever again.

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Zelda's POV:

The days were growing longer; the nights shorter and the waves never seemed to cease rolling loudly against the side of the mountain. Everyday I lay there, no longer able to do anything of use to anyone, for frail bones and weak health had left me bedridden. But that in a way was hell itself, as I now had nothing to occupy my mind, or to drive away thoughts of the one person I'd thought about nearly every minute of my pathetic life. My daughter would come to visit me though, each day at the same time, never late or complaining. She had certainly kept her promise that she'd made all those many years ago, that she would indeed never leave me alone again.

And I thank her so much for it.

The drapery that sectioned off my quarters was drawn back and in she came, her long blonde curls falling gracefully in light ripples down her back. She really was beautiful and had been married herself for about ten years now. I've never resented the fact that she was happy. I wished her well in her life, hoping that she'd have a better chance than I did. Her husband was a wonderful person too and sometimes the two reminded me of how Link and I were once.

Behind her charged in a small girl who was soon scooped up in my daughter's arms. It had to be said I never did quite expect myself to become a grandmother. "How are you feeling today mother?"

"Not particularly great. Blame the sea, it's too loud," I said smiling. She laughed, as did my granddaughter. The young girl must have been playing outside on the rocks again for her short blonde hair was swept all to one side in a blond torrent. She always liked to roam and had caused her parents many worries in the past. It must have been a trait that Link had left in the bloodline.

"Dear, there's something I need you to do," I said.

"What?" my daughter asked.

"I want you to take my necklace when I'm gone, the one with the golden triangle." She looked shocked but didn't say anything. "It is very important that you too give it to your daughter when you die."

"I don't understand," she said. "That's your most treasured possession. I can't take it."

"But what use will it be once I'm gone?" I asked her. "Please," I said leaning over to the chest beside my bedside. Opening it with unsteady hands, I took out my Triforce of Wisdom, chained securely to a strong, tied loop of string. Placing it in her hands I continued. "Please, you must take it. I want you to have it, and for her to wear it too," I said looking toward my granddaughter who was currently watching a butterfly hover around the room. "There will soon come a time when that will be very important, so you mustn't lose it." I breathed deeply. "I saw last night, that soon it will join with it's other triangle, and she'll be the one to bring them together." I said very serious. My daughter had known of my prophetic dreams ever since she was a child. Sometimes when I had told her another story about Hyrule of old, she'd call me a Great Faerie, and I smiled as I thought back to when she was younger.

"The Triforce?" she said in a quiet voice. I nodded slowly, feeling a wave of drowsiness sweep through my body.

"A new age will come soon, I assure you. Too bad I won't be around to see it," I said sadly. Silence overcame us for a moment. "I love you, you know that. You've been everything a mother could want," I said taking her hand and squeezing it gently in mine. "I'm sorry your father hasn't been around to see how beautiful you've become. Maybe you'll have better luck in finding him than I have."

"Mother, don't speak like that, please," she said as I closed my eyes and smiled toward the ceiling.

"You'd better take good care of her, and that husband of yours. Don't let him go. I'll be watching you." I was so tired and I could hear the cries of my daughter become fainter and fainter. Behind my closed eyes a blue light called me forward, and in it I could see Impa, and all the other sages. I took a final breath and I was no longer a part of the mortal world as I took my place among the immortal sages of the heavens.

'I'll see you again Link. I know I will…'

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AN: Hehe, I thought I'd bring you another chapter, as I'm relaxing from having done my semi-evil English Literature GCSE today. Just a quick note here: Get well soon to Berlin'sBrownEyes, and also, don't worry, Malon will be of no further threat to the story. Just thought I'd let you know that ; And thirdly, after re-reading some sections of this story, I realised I may have contradicted myself sometimes, so I apologise for that. I'll make sure by at least the end of this saga that everyone knows everything they should. I promise :D Thank you again to all my reviewers! You're the drive that keeps this thing going! Hopefully when I've done a bunch more of exams, I'll update again, maybe around the 10th/11th June. Even after that I've got more exams XD, but I assure you come the 22nd June I'll have all the time in the world to spend bringing you more chapters!


	8. Departures and Arrivals

AN: I finally have no more exams! :D Yay! It's so nice not to have to study anymore…after having been revising solid for about a month --. Anyway here's the next chapter!Just a quick note though. Italics are Zelda's thoughts, and what happened in the last chapter was very necessary for something that will happen later in the story. But don't worry, Zelda did NOT die. You'll see what I mean in this chapter. Also I've just realised that link in chapter 4 never showed up, so I've put it in my profile instead. Sorry about that ;

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Chapter 8: Departure and Arrival

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Zelda's POV:

I began to feel that horrible slipping feeling; my consciousness ripped and separated from the dying old woman that was myself. The tingling fingers around my head gradually fell away and finally I could think freely for myself, not trapped inside the shell of a different body that sheltered this roaming spirit of mine through time.

It was like a dream, waking up in the body of someone else and being filled with their thoughts and recollections of their life. I had been filled with such wonderful, but frightening emotions. The relief and joy coursing through my veins when I had heard Link's voice had been one of the most exhilarating experiences I had ever lived through, while the sorrow of his loss was more than I could bear. The sheer dread and mourning grief dampened my heart like a thousand rivers of turmoil, and I resolved never to ever let myself feel that way again.

And the child…the small, little girl that I had held so tightly in my arms… I found myself blushing even through the rifts of time I was presumably travelling through. I didn't know where I would be taken next and I only hoped that Link was all right. I wondered if he had been to the future…if he knew about the child that we would raise together…

I smiled to myself wanting more than ever to see him and to once again be by his side. It was strange… I hadn't fallen in love with him through my own eyes, but through the memories of the future, and I found myself being swept along with the tide of their love. But I knew now that I did love Link. Every thought contained him and his bright smile, shining in even the darkest of moments…

I saw an opening up ahead; a dark circle at the end of the long tunnel of blurred images growing larger and larger. In a blinding light I found myself standing on the darkened, grey steps of Hyrule Castle, the rain pattering and splashing viciously on my cloaked back and the sodden earth and grass around me. The clouds veiled the entire sky with a thick, dark, ebony magma, a rumbling being born within its shell as the thunder cracked and clapped through the air. I could hear the waters of the moat behind me churn and speed hastily along the stone path of its course round and round the castle.

But in front of me stood a figure bravely withstanding the pelting bullets of water as he sat atop his horse, sitting proudly in the saddle. The man's clear blue eyes shone through the darkness like fiery torches and I saw the look of remorse on his dripping face as he looked at me.

"Link," I whispered, hardly audible in the lashing weather. "Please don't go, you can't leave now." My hands were clasped to my heart, trying to hold back the stinging pain beating against my chest, and amongst the rain water I felt the tears I had tried so hard to keep back fall down my cheeks. Link turned in his seat and jumped off Epona and walked slowly up to me, rekindling some kind of dying hope that he might stay after all.

"Zelda," he said touching a cold hand to my face. "You know I can't stay. I have to take this chance now, or I might never find Navi again. I know last time I tried to find her was in vain, but…" His sentence trailed and died on the wind. Link looked at me with pleading eyes, stroking my face tenderly. "I promise you I'll come back. I swear I won't be gone long, I promise you." He took my hand and held it to his lips, softly kissing each digit.

"Oh Link," I said sobbing. Gathering him to me I held his strong body in my arms tightly, never wanting to let go. "I'll miss you." But I knew that whatever I said would make no difference.

"Don't cry Zelda," Link cooed. "No matter where I go, or how long I'm gone, I'll always love you. Every time you close your eyes, I'll be there waiting for you. Every time you dream at night, I'll be there. I'm always with you Zelda." His gentle hands rubbed my shoulders making me shiver in the cold.

"I love you so much Link," I said choking on my tears. "I won't ever forgive you if you break your promise," I said smiling slightly. Link looked at me, and returned the grin.

"I'll always come back for you," he said wiping the droplets of water away from my eyes. I leaned up and kissed him with all my heart, savouring the sweet taste of his lips for one last time. Whispering 'I love you' over and over, my lips wouldn't stay satisfied with just one kiss. I kissed him again and again on his face and down his neck leaving a hot but quickly dampened trail over his skin.

"Be careful," I said hugging him one last time.

"I will," he replied, embracing me with equal ferocity. Without another word he pulled away and leapt up into Epona's saddle once more and kicked his heels. At once the mighty creature cantered away down in the hill and out of the gates, the dull thud of hooves in the earth growing fainter and fainter as my love galloped out of sight.

I stayed there for a very long time, losing myself in the beating of the rain and the sloshing of the moat. Suddenly I felt a fresh waterfall of tears escape valiantly from my eyes, containing a far stronger emotion that any I had felt before.

"What?" I whispered to myself. "Whose tears _are_ these?"

They're my tears.

This was real. This wasn't some vision of my feelings; I really felt it. Deep down in my heart I knew that now, I did_ love Link. Those few moments weren't my acting out the thoughts of another but my…real feelings too…_

At that moment, everything suddenly made a little more sense about what had happened…and why.

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Link's POV:

"Zelda," I murmured. "Zelda, come back…"

"Are you all right young man?" a loud, sudden voice intruded. I jumped out of my sleep and found myself in an all too familiar situation with someone staring rather closely into my face. Having thought momentarily that this had all been a bad dream, back with the old man in the red cloak, I soon recognised the wooden ceilings and the soft bed in which I had rested in when I had arrived at Ruto Town.

"Sorry, bad dream," I muttered to the innkeeper and he quickly returned to his duties before looking back at me strangely.

It was Zelda; it really had been her standing there before me, cold and wet from the storm. I could still feel her lips against mine, the ghostly form of her mouth still lingering with me and I wanted more than anything in the world for her to be here at my side. But she too must be caught in the time shifts. At least I had the reassurance that Zelda was all right.

I set out with Epona as soon as I could, impatient to find another Triforce shard. As I rode toward the gates though, a distressed cry came from one of the houses. A wooden stall came hurtling out of a glass window, shattering it into tiny fragments. The shouts became louder and Epona reared in fright. I clamped my arms around her neck, trying my hardest to calm her down as well as stay in the saddle.

The brown mare eventually landed her hooves back on the ground with a large click as they crashed down to the stone cobbled street. Patting her neck and stroking her mane, I looked up to see a figure stumble and run from an alleyway and the sound of a slamming door echoed into my ears.

"You damn Gerudo! Come back here!" the voice of a gruff woman shouted. Snapping the reigns I pulled Epona in front of the thief to block their path, but in a swift leap the Gerudo jumped up to me, shoved me roughly out of my saddle and immediately sped away on Epona, their white cape and hood flying behind them.

"Hey!" I yelled. I was about to run after her when I realised that the sword that the old man had given me had fallen on the floor. Hastily I grabbed the blade from the ground and held it securely in a tight grip.

"W-Who are you?" the woman said in a timid voice. I had been about to run again but I froze in my tracks at her question. "A-Are you a ghost?" My mouth dropped open slightly and suddenly I realised what she was talking about. Technically I was meant to be dead…

Before the situation went any further, I dug around in my pockets for a Deku nut. Perhaps if the sword stayed with my through different times, then maybe other objects I had stashed away did also. Finally my hands felt the small wrinkled sphere, and following the tradition Sheik had used so many times in front of me I smashed the nut to the ground and ran away into the shadows before the brilliant light dimmed.

Running into the opposite alleyway, I knew I had to find a route that would bring me back to the Gerudo. Taking the first right possible I ran down the next street through the wandering people, but there no way I would catch her on foot; I needed something faster. My eyes searched the market stalls lining the road for something useful but many were just selling fruits and beans of some sorts.

And then I saw them, tucked away on the other side of the street: Pegasus Seeds direct from Holodrum and Labrynna. Weaving my way through the crowds, I pulled out a surprisingly small Rupee bag, and asked quickly how much they cost. But the old man sitting at the counter raised his head as if from a dream.

"Yes lad? How may I help you?" his old, tired voice droned.

"I need some of your Pegasus Seeds, quickly!" I said, my feet itching to be back on the run.

"Well now, how many bags would you like?"

"How much do they cost?" I said restlessly.

"One bag costs 10 rupees," he said filling the small dark sack carefully. "Two bags cost 20 rupees, and three - ". He was going so slowly that Epona would be undoubtedly beyond the gates by now.

"I'll take two bags," I said slamming down the entire pouch and scooping up the remaining seeds myself. Leaving the old man speechless I hurried off and chucked a handful into my mouth. At once I felt the strength and speed stream through my veins and in a flash I was running as fast as the wind down the street. Ignoring the confused people I dashed my way around the villagers, keeping my eyes alert for any sign of Epona.

An abrupt, occurrence then came across my line of vision. A white cape billowed in the wind as it rode perpendicular to the straight road up another alleyway and I saw the chestnut red colour of my mare disappear behind the stone buildings. Shoving another handful of the seeds into my mouth I sped after them, finishing the first bag. Dropping it to the floor I screeched around the corner and sprinted as fast as I could toward the flickering white cape of the rider.

The Gerudo turned around in the saddle and saw me trailing close behind, but I swear I saw her smile as she turned her attention back to where she was going, making Epona pick up speed. I followed her right out toward the gates and she cantered into the open fields of the late morning. The sun was high in the sky and I could see the Gerudo thief a lot more clearly. The breeze had picked up and blew her hood away from her head, letting her long, tied back red hair twist in the wind.

Cramping another of seeds in I came level with the tired horse and looked up at the woman who taken Epona captive. "So you've caught me, eh Link?" she said smiling. Suddenly she pulled my horse to a stop, dust clouds gathering at her hooves. I on the other hand kept on running until I realised that the thief had stopped. Digging my heels into the earthy soil I ground to a halt and jogged, rather quickly, back to Epona and the Gerudo.

But as I neared, I finally recognised who she was. "Nabooru?" I said confused. "What in Din's name are you doing?" I said continuing to inhale the refreshing air deeply as I caught my breath.

"So the rumours are true," she said ignoring my question. "Are you really back from the dead or are you some other kind of unearthly being 'your majesty'? A mixture of solemnity and sarcasm rang in her words as she hopped down from Epona's saddle.

'Well if she's not going to answer my question, there's no reason I need to answer hers," I thought. "Why did you steal Epona?"

"I had to get away somehow. You just happened to have a horse that I could use. She's a good strong horse, but you probably know that already," she said stroking Epona's neck.

"Why are you here?"

"I could ask you exactly the same thing 'your royal undead-ness'," she said with a mock bow. "But for your information, I'm here to investigate what the hell has been happening down here. You know Hyrule's in a right mess because of you!"

"Yeah, I know. But the real problem is back in my world!" I protested.

"What? _Your_ world? This _is_ your world!" Nabooru exclaimed.

"No it isn't. For me, this is the future. I've been sent here because time has become disrupted and now my Triforce has broken, with each part probably thrown into a different time!" I said, realising just how hopeless this situation actually looked. "I might never see Zelda again, or even find her if this isn't fixed; I might stay in this god-forsaken land for the rest of my life - "

"Hey! Hero of Time!" Nabooru said loudly. "I've got something that might interest you."

"If it's a ticket home I'll gladly take it," I said sarcastically.

"No, something a little better," Nabooru said with a cunning smile as she opened a pouch at her side. "I believe this belongs to you." She tossed me a shining object and when I caught it, a bright light shone from my palm and it suddenly disappeared…into a larger glowing piece of my Triforce triangle on the back of my hand…

"Nabooru," I said, shocked at what had just happened. "Where did you get this from?"

"I picked it up on my travels. To be precise, I found it in that old hag's home. It was just sitting there on the shelf, so I thought I might as well give it back to its owner."

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

"Well, don't just stand there. We've got more Triforce to find!" she said pulling her cloak back over her head. The Gerudo then put two fingers to her mouth and she whistled loudly, calling her own horse from the town gates. The brown horse cleverly un-tethered itself from the post near the walls, and quickly cantered to its mistress. As the stead came toward her, Nabooru lifted herself up onto the saddle in a fluid swing, all while the animal was still moving. "Hurry up slow coach!" she called over her shoulder as she sped off down the dusty road.

Shaking my head I jumped up into Epona's saddle and galloped after her, smiling to myself at the fact that no matter how many years had passed, Nabooru was just the same as when I had first met her.


	9. Light of Defeat

AN: Whoo, another chapter for me to bring to you. Those Pegasus Seeds were from the Oracle series by the way. Up until recently I hadn't played my Oracle of Ages for YEARS and I had never completed it. So I've been sending a lot of time playing that lately, as well as my little brother's Oracle of Seasons D and I felt I just had to include something from those games just to make this truly a story concerning all Zelda games. All I need now is something from Link's Awakening… Got any suggestions anyone?

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Chapter 9: The Light of Defeat

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Link's POV:

"Would you like to explain just _how_ we're going to cross that?" I asked my new travelling partner as we both faced the disgusting and vile stench of the swampland, festering and bubbling for as far as the eye could see. Enclosed in a tight valley, slumped, swollen trees and overhanging vines lined the edges of the jagged truncated spurs chiselled out of the rock, directing the ribbon lake of stagnant waters down the chasm. Dragonflies hovered and buzzed over the stinking pits; few birds flew in the darkening skies; and everything was eerily silent.

"Hey!" Nabooru snapped. "How the goddesses was I meant to know there's a nasty swamp down here? Besides, we have to cross this if you want that other Triforce piece, and I hear there's some mighty good treasure over in Saria Town," she said rubbing her hands together gleefully.

"Nabooru," I said putting a weary hand to my temple.

"What?"

Sighing, I gently nudged Epona's flanks and with a cautious step she slowly approached the boggy dump. I felt her shiver as she placed one hoof after another into the foul peat, snorting and thrashing her head as she walked. Nabooru followed with the same repulsive behaviour from her own horse and together we trudged through the swamp, hands over our mouths, always keeping a watchful eye out for danger.

"You know, it's weird how they've named the towns after us sages. Perhaps they thought they could gain some sympathy from us to end Gannondorf's reign if they dedicated their towns to us…"Nabooru wondered aloud. "But then again we can't do much without the Triforce eh?"

I could feel her eyes looking at my back. "It's not your fault this happened; it's mine. As soon as I put my Triforce back together, everything will go back to normal," I said, hoping with all my heart that it would.

The bushes rustled on my left and I knew instantly we had company. I pulled Epona to a halt, and listened.

"Hey, why have we stopped?" Nabooru asked as her horse slopped through the swamp behind me. I held up my hand to silence her and unsheathed my sword. I slid off my saddle, grimacing when I felt my boots squelch in the green slim, but kept listening.

Above the movement of the insects; the breathing of the trees; and the gurgling of the swamp, I heard it. There was a low, snarling breath somewhere, hidden and masked from my sight. I moved out in front of Epona, scanning the valley wall for any activity, but found none.

Suddenly I heard another sound different from the first, a sharp whining of a blade on the wind. Nabooru called my name but I already knew what was coming. I'd felt this before, in the graveyard. The warrior, the Hero of Time, awoke from the deep alcoves of my mind and in a movement I thought to be impossible, my sword swung upward and deflected the projectile weapon in the blink of an eye. My eyes narrowed and the grunt became louder, screeching that its target wasn't now drowning in its own blood.

A loud wail then erupted from the overgrowth and from the sickly shades of green sprang a bruised yellow reptilian creature, clad in a torn, red tunic and armour plated shoulders, wielding large axes that seemed to magically multiply from its claws.

"Link, it's a Daira!" Nabooru shouted as she cantered past me, grabbing Epona's reins in the process. "Be careful!"

But before I could reply, the charging lizard hurled the magic axes toward me with deadly precision. I struggled to deflect each one, slowly being pushed backward toward the steep valley wall. There was no break in the endless onslaught, each one coming faster than the last, and my sword wouldn't be able to take many more blows…

I tried rolling to the side and running away from the break, but even that was too slow. The axes caught up with me frighteningly quickly and without a shield to defend myself, I feared my sword would soon break in two. But my hope was revived, the grimace set in my face dissolving when I saw Nabooru join the battle; her two, crescent shaped swords ready to unleash a blinding whirlwind attack. Keeping our only mode of transport safely away from the fray, Nabooru hopped off her horse and sprinted back through the swamp to my aid. I thought that we'd have a chance of defeating this creature. As the Daira was only concentrating on me, then it wouldn't notice Nabooru from behind… However that confidence came as quickly as it went.

In mid poise, the Daira turned around upon hearing the splashing and sunken footsteps of the Gerudo, and drove a sharp axe into her shoulder, dragging it slowly downward toward her heart with a mean smile fixed on its scaly face. I watched her in disbelief, eyes wide and mouth gaping, our faces mirroring each other's, as she fell to her knees.

Shock turned to sorrow. That sorrow melted to anger. And that anger began burning with a fiery hatred. Strength flowed to my muscles, and my hands itched to pierce the monster's skull in return. Sprinted toward the Daira, my feet felt as though they barely graced the swamp's surface. Nabooru was becoming more and more butchered, her bare skin being sliced open with ease, and I felt my anger mount to the tall zenith of Death Mountain itself. Feeling the energy pulsate through me, I leaped into the air and spun my blade horizontally in a blinding flash. The Daira tumbled down, caught in the eternal poise of mid-swing, the axe in its hand barely missing the red hairs of Nabooru's head.

Sheathing my sword, the loathing for the monster, for Ganon, and for this entire mess I'd caused, partially dissolved into an anxious worry as I picked up the battered thief and carried her quickly to the horses she'd ridden away from danger.

"I'm so sorry Nabooru," I muttered to her closed amber eyes. 'This is all my fault,' I thought, feeling the remaining hatred begin to root itself in my heart, resenting to be eradicated.

Taking a hold on her horse's reins, I jumped up into Epona's saddle, Nabooru lying in my arms. Small drops of rain started to soak my face, and all too soon the shower swelled to a torrent; the wind picking up and hissing in the trees. Kicking hard, our two horses sped off into the centre of the swamp, spewing the gruelling, liquefied remains behind us.

Eventually I saw the rising buildings of Saria town appear in the distance at the confluence of the swamp and another river. Galloping in through the gates, it wasn't far until Epona reared up at the site of the large gushing waters that tore down the middle of the town. Looking upstream, the river had become a deluge, sweeping away anything that lay in its path, swallowing fallen trees and unfortunate wandering animals in a muddy froth…as well as the bridge to cross to the other side…

"Please help us warrior!" a voice cried. A young woman dressed in a wet, blue dress that clung to her body hurried up to me, her hands praying for assistance. "Please, you've got to find Bagu! He's the only one who can fix the bridge! He lives in the forest just north of town. We can't get across to our homes if the bridge isn't fixed. Please, you've got to help us!"

Sighing, I turned our horses around without even so much as a reply.

Nabooru still lay unconscious as we rode in the spitting rain, shooting down from the black heavens. I saw the wooded trees up ahead and once we had arrived in the shelter of their canopies, the rain was a little less punishing. She was growing colder and colder as I held her awkwardly to me, but suddenly my heart was pricked in a greater fear as I felt my eyes droop, my concentration fall and my head become light.

'Oh goddesses, no," I thought with a rising anxiety. My vision began to blur and the trees merged into one long wall of wood and leaves; scenes flashed through my mind briefly as I squinted and hastily rubbed my eyes.

Yet my efforts were in vain. Slowly I felt myself become detached from this world, my mind lost in the rifts of broken time, leaving both the life of a sage and an entire village in the hands of fate…

---

A heavy rain lashed down on my back, my lungs inhaling the thick, wet moisture in the air. I could hear the splashing of water mingling with a strange fluid voice coming from behind me somewhere. Rubbing my head, I opened my eyes, desperately hoping to see the wooded trees of the forest. Unfortunately faith conspired against me and all around were high, mountainous walls plastered with green vegetation around where a large lake rested in the lowland basin. Two small islands along with two pools of shallow water crowned the centre of the waters, being strangely reminiscent of Lake Hylia…

But as I brought myself out of my daze, I saw a Zora who looked horribly familiar; her arms stretched out as she trod water, facing an assembly of the Zolas I'd encountered before. Their red gilled heads glared at her through the rain, their menacing eyes unblinking as she spoke. I could hear the brave voice trying to communicate with them, but ignoring her they threw balls out of their mouths at the intruder, singeing her white blue skin.

Inwardly wanting as much as possible to go back to where I'd left Nabooru, I couldn't help but call out and drive their attention away from the defenceless Zora, despite who it appeared to be. Each entity heard the sudden infringement on their home and large blue eyes widened when they turned round and saw me.

"LINK!" she cried as she dove under the water and exploded from the depths by my side. Wrapping her wet arms around me tightly, I almost toppled over in with her.

"If I'm going to help you, you're going to have to let go, Ruto!" I shouted trying to peel her away from me. But as I did so, I could see a faint shining light glowing at the bottom of the lake… Could it be?

Abruptly Ruto took my hand and dragged me back away from the water. "Don't hurt them!" she said worriedly. "It's not their fault."

We ran a safe distance from the lake, turning west into a large field. I could see the castle in the distance, the four white towers at each corner shining through the darkness of the merciless bullet rain. Ruto led me up a small hill and into an abandoned house without saying a word, being oddly silent for someone like herself.

"What's the matter?" I asked over the pouring storm as I noticed the down-turned mouth and burns mixed with bruises making an intricate patchwork all over her body.

She sniffed and opened the door, crystalline tears forming in her huge eyes. "Every thing is just so terrible! Where in Din's name have you been?" the Zora princess wailed, weeping softly into my tunic.

Saying nothing I placed a remorseful hand upon her shoulder as she continued. "Ever since you've been gone, Lake Hylia dried up again and Kakariko village had to be abandoned because of all the Zolas and monsters that begun to live nearby. The Lost Woods were destroyed, the princess has been captured…Everything is a total mess!"

I was speechless. The sneering rage mixed with the perpetual apprehension lodged in me grew further, increasing with every word the tumbled sometimes incoherently out of her mouth.

"Everyone has had to move to the west," Ruto mumbled. "The village had to be rebuilt and with all the rain we've been having, the Gerudos and their desert disappeared and a new Lost Woods formed up there. But none of the Kokiri remain either…That damn Ganon! He's wiped out nearly everyone!" she cried, slamming a fist against my chest.

Swallowing hard I fought back the tears threatening to fall. I wasn't even going to think of what happened to my home, my friends and family, how they must have felt, or the torture they underwent… Tears pricked my eyes as I thought of how everyone had been looking forward to the new hope of the Deku Scrub that grew in place of the long deceased Deku Tree. Their hope had been crushed along with the spirits of the people wanting a hero to save them, and the strength of a nation so plagued with monstrosity… Everything had been broken by the hand of one man…who I had let free…

"I'm sorry," I uttered, finding those, the only words I could say. "I'm so sorry."

"But you're here now Link. You'll save Hyrule won't you?" A hanging light of faith held in her voice as she spoke.

"I…don't know Ruto," I sighed.

"W-What?"

I breathed deeply. "All I do is apologise! I…I never do anything to make things better. Without my Triforce I'm nothing; another soldier among many… Without it…I can't do anything right," I said breaking away, not daring to look at her eyes.

"But Link," Ruto started.

"No! There aren't any 'but Link's when it comes to people's lives. If I make mistakes, people are hurt. If I don't do something, everyone will suffer. If I don't have the Triforce, people will die!" I said harshly.

Looking hurt, she cast her eyes downward. I turned my back to her, staring out of the window. Death Mountain loomed northwards beyond the great Hyrule Castle, dark clouds shadowing the peak and fighting away the sunlight.

"While you were gone, a new hero arose," she said quietly. "He too is called Link and all the sages thought it was you, back from the dead."

Her voice became less stable. "Princess Zelda too hoped with all her heart that our Hero had returned. But it wasn't you at all." I felt her tears run down her cheeks. "H-He rescued her many times from Ganon's clutches, each time renewing the horrible fact that perhaps you really had died. But he didn't have the Triforce."

Her words were now no more than an angry whisper. "He fought on, wanting nothing more than to save our country from Ganon and return peace to Hyrule. But you, you sit here moaning about how you need the Triforce to win. That boy didn't need it and neither should you! It's not just the power of the Triforce, but the hopes of every person in Hyrule, the strength of the sages and the will of yourself that makes your heart even worthy of possessing the Triforce. Right now, you don't even deserve to be called a Hero." And I felt the encroaching guilt and selfishness smack me in the face.

"I don't," I mumbled after a while. "I don't deserve anything." I looked out of the window, watching the small droplets of water stream down the glass. Everything was grey and black, stained with the impregnable darkness that had invaded and overthrown Hyrule's once golden kingdom. I had caused this. This was my problem.

And I was going to fix it.

Silently I crossed the room, past Ruto and back out into the storm, sword in hand. I had never known about this new hero risen from nowhere, and I remembered what Impa had said about the Triforce.

"Without that, Ganon will never be beaten, even by you."

Somehow the infallible nursemaid had been wrong, and for once the Zora princess had made a lot of sense, her words hitting me in a new way no one had ever made me feel before. I smiled, remembering her once being a very incoherent person. No…The Hero of Time remembered her as once being a very incoherent person. Sighing, I realised I would never truly know what had happened then. Maybe I wasn't meant to find out. After all, if time was turned back for everyone, then our memories would be erased too…

I reached the lake again quicker than I thought. One by one the Zolas poked their heads above the water, watching me with a wary eye as I approached the water's edge. Taking a deep breath I dove under, feeling the rain cease to fall against my back and batter my face as the cool liquid surrounded me in a sheltering cloak. There was something in that lake and I knew it could only be one thing…

Even underwater I could see the blurred image of light radiate from the depths. But everything else was nothing but water. I didn't see the Zolas dart toward me, scratching and clawing me as I swam deeper and deeper. And I didn't see the balls they threw from their mouths or the barrages of attacks they dealt me.

All I saw was the bright golden object below me and nothing else.

I kept swimming down, feeling my breath begin to deteriorate with each kick and pull. Bubbles escaped by the dozen out of my mouth and soon there were no more to blow. If I were going to amend everything I'd let happen, I needed to reach that sunlit fragment that slumbered in the lake's mouth. I needed to…

I breathed in gasps of air, refilling my lungs with the precious gas of life, even though it was drench in the coat of the rainfall. My head was aching, my eyes drowsy, and I wondered how I'd come so quickly from the suffocating lake to the stormy surface.

"You almost drowned," a feminine voice said beside me. Looking up I saw Ruto kneeling beside me, her fins flapping in the wind. "But you did it," she said, tears brimming in her eyes, a smile trembling on her lips.

"I…did?" I said, still breathing heavily. She took my hand and raised it up so I could see. Nearly half of that small triangle was alight with a brilliant glory.

"Goodbye Link," the Zora said sadly.

"What?" But before I realised what was happening, Ruto leaned down and kissed my cheek, her tears falling softly on my face before I was pulled away again into the black nothing of time.

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AN: Just a quick note. For those of you who haven't played Link's Adventure on the NES, Bagu is a person you need to see in order to cross the bridge in Saria Town. The annoying guard won't let you cross until you've seen him ¬¬.

Anyway, I want to say a big thank you again to everyone who reviewed! I really hope this is starting to finally make some sort of sense now as everything is gradually being pulled together. And feel free to suggest a little something I could include from Link's Awakening in a review! hint hint


	10. Search of the Sages

AN: Thank you to everyone who's reviewed. Once again, the Italics are Zelda's thoughts, and I'm going to focus mainly on her for this chapter, so you'll have to wait to find out what happened to Link and Nabooru :D Also, I'm going away on my vacation on the 23rd July, so you'll have to wait even longer to find out XD. I'm sorry! But while I'm gone, I'll try and start chapter 11 and get it to you when I come back, the 10th August, or as soon as possible after that. We're driving to Italy, so I'll have plenty of time to think and write something. But for now, here's chapter 10.

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Chapter 10: Search of the Sages

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Zelda's POV:

It seemed that as soon as I saw Link leave, his stead galloping gallantly through to the other side of the ethereal rain sheets, I felt my stomach lurch. Small beads of cold sweat mingled with the rainwater, and together they ran down the side of my face, bringing with them a sweeping dizziness that wavered across my mind. Wincing uncomfortably, my hand shot to my forehead to quell the hazy forces exerting around my body. Slowly I began groping for a railing of some form to keep my cold, shaking limbs from collapsing. I grasped the cool metal cylinders with a tight but sliding grip, and with unsure footsteps, staggered back to the castle.

The unresolved storm soon dissolved to a chill that swept me in a fit of shivers as I stepped back inside. No longer able to carry me any further, my legs collapsed beneath me, resulting in a very ungraceful fall onto the dry carpet, soon dampened by my thoroughly drenched clothing. Craning my head from the heap I was in on the floor, I saw someone rush toward me. A young woman crashed down on her knees and looked anxiously at my face, mumbling comments I couldn't hear.

I recognised her as one of the maids and she readily helped me up and walked me to my room. Sitting me down on my soft bed, she ran into the bathroom to run some hot water. I thanked her as gratefully as I could, my head still spinning with conflicting thoughts, then weakly pealed away my sodden clothes once she had gone, and stepped into the scorching bath. The heat however seemed to amplify the suffocating nausea, sending my mind into a fit of flying thoughts battling against images flashing across my eyes. I soon climbed out, longing to be rid of this plaguing sickness, and pulled a robe over my dripping skin.

I yearned to lie down, to relieve my thoughts of Link's departure. Though while contending with these sensitive recollections, and myself, I broke down in a fresh wave of tears against the soft pillows of my bed that gradually soothed my aching body. But nothing could quench the eruption of endless sobs that continued long after the storm ceased in the dead of the night. I mumbled his name over and over, hoping that it would offer me some small respite in the absence of his warmth, but none came. I lay there alone; trembling; constantly thinking that maybe if I cried now, the worst of the suffering wouldn't occur again.

I knew that this day would come sooner or later. Ever since he'd left when he was just a child to Termina and came back empty-handed, I knew that someday he would go and search for his lost friend Navi once again. Yet no matter how much I thought I had prepared myself, nothing could even compare to the gnawing parasite eating at my heart; the uncontrollable tears; or the feeling as though in a second, I was less than half the person I'd just been. Eventually I felt my eyes grow heavy, stinging with dried tears and fatigue. I fell into a light doze, not really asleep, but not really awake either. It was more like a limbo in-between them, wavering on the crumbling bridge between the two different realities.

But as I slept, the nibbling creature in my chest slipped to my head and it rang with a piercing screech. Something fell away, a part of the walkway into the waters of sleep and I closed my eyes, shedding one last tear before I finally crossed over into the realms of rest.

---

With a heavy heart, my mind was torn away from the grieving, distraught woman. My own tears dried on my cheeks instantly, leaving shiny silver lines on my ivory skin. The next time I opened my groggy eyes, I looked up into an eternal black ceiling, grey pillars extending into the dark cloud of the ceiling. The trails of my sobs were still present, and my entire body felt as though it was weighted down, lying rigidly on a hard, cold stone surface. As I brought myself up from the depths of my sleep, I heard candles flickering all around me, and I recognised the place as a disused chamber of the Northern Palace my father had once taken me too…

"Princess," a sudden voice said softly. I turned my neck to the side, my eyes widening slightly when I saw the very boy who had rescued me from before, leaning over me with a sparkle in his eyes. His brown hair fell into his face as he smiled. "You're awake."

"L-Link," I whispered sadly, feeling my chest tighten saying his name. "What happened?" I asked sitting up, taking the boy's offered hand as he helped me down from the altar.

"Ganon cast a spell on you, Princess, putting you into a deep sleep. I restored the crystals Impa gave to me to the other palaces, and now the spell is broken! Everyone will be so glad to hear that no harm came to you, your majesty."

"I thank you…Link. You've saved our country from Ganon once again. All of Hyrule will be grateful for your courageous actions." With every word, my throat grew more clogged with unshed tears.

"Princess, are you all right?" Link asked hesitantly. I shook my head quickly.

"It is nothing," I said swallowing hard. "I-I must return to central Hyrule. In this brief time of peace, we must rebuild the castle and prepare ourselves for Ganon's next attack." It was hard trying to sound strong, but I decided it was well past the time for dwelling on previous thoughts and events.

"Then I must come with you and help."

"Thank you Link." I paused. "But now I need to find Impa and prepare for the journey," I said walking away from Link. 'And retrace every footstep we made,' I thought silently. "Link…you too must get ready for us to depart as soon as possible. I'll leave you to attend to your matters," I said hurriedly, wanting more than anything to find the comforting presence of my oldest and dearest friend.

Still a little dazed from such a long rest, I wearily climbed up the stairs that led to the chambers. I remembered this palace as being bright and cheerful, servants walking speedily from place to place, running errands of all kinds of tasks. There was always a peaceful atmosphere radiating through the flagstones, its calm air reaching even the highest of the towers. But now, no torches or candles were lit, and no servants walked the corridors. Everything was silent, the menacing caw of the birds outside being the only sound I could hear other than my echoing footsteps. The walls and floors were a deep blue-grey, making it seem as though the night darkness had broken through to the inside, and if it were not for my knowledge of the castle, I would have been frightened to walk up the unending black turret.

Reaching the top, I could see the faint outlines of the different doors along the hallway, but one was alight with a golden frame. Approaching it cautiously, I knocked gently on the wooden panels and heard the immediate rustles of life from within.

"W-Who's there?" the voice cried.

I smiled and replied with my name as I opened the door. A fire was blazing in the corner, throwing moving shadows all over the walls; books were lined neatly on shelves, all arranged on the sides of the room; and in the middle stood my one and only companion through these difficult years, her aged eyes alit with fright and disbelief.

"Princess…" she whispered as she stepped forward.

Smiling with tears in my eyes I ran forward and embraced Impa with all the strength I possessed. I let my lamenting worries wreak havoc upon her shoulder as she held me with an equal ferocity. We said nothing, but I think our actions said more than enough. For me, the wandering spirit lost amongst the rifts of the ages, it had been too long since I had had someone to talk to, someone to explain my thoughts and fears. Impa had always been there, even in the harshest of times, when I needed her most, and that period of her absence had made me realise just how much I needed someone like her.

"Zelda, I'm so glad you're safe!" Impa said thankfully, soothing my tears. I drew back to look at her strict, but kind face. However that motherly smile quickly disappeared.

"Impa, what's wrong?"

She sighed and looked away. "Zelda, there is something I must tell you."

"What is it?" Could it be that even more disaster has struck this forsaken land? I felt my heart quicken as she turned back to face me, a melancholy regret shining in her eyes.

"It…" she began. "It concerns Prince Link."

"Oh no," I both thought and whispered again and again, barely audible as I stepped away, my arms hugging my sides. All at once terrible images dashed across my eyes, assuming the worst had finally come to pass. Before Impa could continue I stared at her with an unblinking gaze, wishing that what I thought wouldn't be true.

Could that apparition of Link in the graveyard really have been a dream, an illusion I had so blindly followed. He had appeared so suddenly and left in the same manner. Would Impa tell me that he really was…dead?

"Princess, please calm yourself!" Impa took a firm hold on my shoulders and made me look at her, despite my efforts to look away, avoiding the inevitable truth. "Zelda, there is no need to fret. Our Link is indeed alive!"

I was silent for a moment. "What?"

"He is not dead, for I have seen him with my own eyes!" Impa said, a slight smile returning to her lips.

"W-When did this happen?" I said anxiously.

"He came to your chamber while you slept upon the altar… But I must warn you my dear, he seemed not of this world, but of another gone by…"

"It was him! It must have been the same person who saved me from the monster. Surely though, he looked the same?" My heart had hastened all the more, pounding excitedly against my ribs. "Link truly is alive!" I breathed happily.

"But Princess, who knows when he may return? It was quite some months ago when he appeared and I sent him on to Rauru Town shortly after. It seems that somehow, the Triforce of Courage has broken away from Link, and now he is searching for the shards. He may be anywhere in Hyrule now."

Link, it's you I know it is! I only wish I could be more helpful and look for the Triforce pieces with you. But it appears that you are the person you were back in our own time. You don't have a future person to play like myself…so perhaps that means you really did die, and have come into the future as a newborn person. Though without your intervention, I doubt that this future self of mine would have kept coped, knowing that you were gone from this world. You don't know how many times I've had to suffer from your absence, crying unstoppably for hours, even days. At least I can have the comfort of knowing that you're doing something to fix this problem so we can go home, together.

"Princess," Impa continued. "I think the most important thing now is to return to Hyrule Castle and rebuild our kingdom before Ganon returns." I nodded in agreement; still giddy from acknowledging Link was actually alive and well. "However, I also have a proposal to help aid our victory, as well as your own well-being. While we return to Hyrule, the sages could scour Hyrule to look for Link and once found, they could bring him safely back to the castle to reclaim his position as Prince, and as your husband."

I smiled. "Yes, I agree." But as soon as the words left my mouth, I felt something bubble inside my stomach and a wave of prickly heat wash over me. Without thinking I ran into the adjoining bathroom, leaving Impa to listen to the loud, retching barks as I threw my head over the lavatory. The old woman hurried after me, gently pulling away my blonde tresses behind my back.

"Maybe you're not so fit to travel after all."

* * *

Link's POV:

The searing heat mixed with the perpetual rainfall woke me instantly. Cautiously I looked around, staring at nothing but brazen rock. A familiar circular cloud of smoke still lingered in the sky, bordering the looming crescent shaped mountain peak. Then suddenly I was almost thrown off my feet as it felt like an earthquake passed right underneath me. Without giving anything another thought I ran down the slopes.

I had to get out. Somehow I had to find a way out of this place, now. More earth shattering tremors rolled like a tidal wave behind me, forever tumbling and rolling closer with more force and power each time. To my good fortunate, there were no rocks as of yet that spewed from the crater's edge from deep down inside the molten sauna, and I sighed in relief that things weren't the worst they could be…yet.

'How did I end up on top of Death Mountain?'

As I came to an edge of the dirt-track road, worn away by trampling feet and heavy Gorons, I looked out over the land below. It was still raining, and so the transparent silver lines that cascaded down the sky and beyond the borders of the thunderclouds nearly obscured everything. I strained my eyes and I thought I could see a town below, the two sides separated by a thick, dark, murky stripe. Beyond that there seemed to be woodland that neighboured a different shade of green through the night gloom. I had never remembered this scene before… But as I thought about it more and more, and looked harder into the sleeting rain, I thought I saw smoke coming from a spot in the middle of the forest…and I answered my own question.

Picking up my pace again, I sprinted down the winding path once more. 'I might still have a chance! If that's actually Saria Town down there with the raging river, I might still be able to save Nabooru!'

Suddenly the rain never felt so good as I embraced the invigorating raindrops on my face, letting them cleanse and wipe away the grimy heat clinging under my eyes and in my hair. I wanted to laugh, to smile at the luck I'd been given; the second chance to put things right. My legs began carrying me faster down the mountainside, the shuddering molten core seeming no longer wanting to unleash its wrath.

But even as I ran, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw a moving figure to my right. I stopped and drew my sword as the sound of tumbling rocks cracked against each other. The creature stood up and looked at me with it's silly grinning face through the rain and I sighed, replacing my sword in its scabbard. Just a Goron…

I was about to return on my way when my hand started to glow faintly, tingling with a strange buzzing sensation. I looked repeatedly from my hand to the Goron, my rocky companion staring at me strangely all the while. It began to move, probably curious at my obscure behaviour, and walked closer to me. My hand began glowing brighter, the Triforce mark almost penetrating the black air like a burning torch. Did that mean another Triforce shard was nearby?

The Goron came nearer and nearer and I saw that it held something in its brown hands. But it looked like an ordinary rock. The dark chestnut jagged surface covered every inch of the rough…smooth shining piece of gold! My eyes lit up, and carefully I inched closer to the Goron, wanting nothing more than to see the boulder it cradled in its large fingers. The Goron eyed me suspiciously and immediately hid the bundle of rocks away from me and began running in the opposite direction.

"Hey, come back!" I shouted, determined now that I'd get that piece of Triforce first, despite feeling guilty that Nabooru's life was on the line and that every second I wasted trying to get this put her in even more danger… But what would I do if that Triforce ended up being eaten by the time I got back up here, sitting in the pits of a Goron's stomach? If I ever had the time to make it back…

I ran after the greedy creature straying from the smooth pathway, trying to keep my eyes locked on the moving blur while not tripping over obtrusive rocks and boulders that were scattered over the broken granite surface. The Goron however was so worried about me stealing his precious rock, that it was he who abruptly fell, the rock and Triforce flying from it's arms. Seeing my opportunity I ran past the fallen enemy and was about to seize my prize when the Goron jumped on my back, sending us both back down to the painful ground.

I shut my eyes tightly, waiting for the impact with an increasingly rising dread. I had the boulder securely in my arms and there was no time to fling them out in front of me for protection. Then it came. The sharp, piercing thud as I slammed my head against the rocky floor. But before I could even realise what happened or register the aching pain springing up all over my body, the Goron pried with scratching hands at my arms, trying desperately to reclaim what was his. We wrestled with each other, each grasping the rock encrusted Triforce with an undying strength, each glaring at each other and demanding the other let go.

"Please, I need this rock!" I yelled through the storm. "There's something inside it I - "

"This is my rock! Go find your own!"

Suddenly another earthquake like force shivered violently all through the mountain, startling us both. A deafening eruption thundered through the air like a hundred cannons, followed by a whine that whistled through the air, barely heard over the rain. But before either of us realising what happened, a huge flaming chunk of singed rock the size of a horse hurtled down on the path not too far away, sending an even greater vibration through the ground, forcing out rock away and out of our hands. With unbelieving eyes, the Goron and myself watched the minute glimpse of the golden gem soar through the air, right over the cliff-face in the dark abyss of ravaged land below.

Forgetting about the volcano; the lethal boulder bomb that could have killed us both; and everything else, I looked at the Goron, a steely glare etched onto my face. He too looked back with the same expression. Without saying a word, the tow of us simultaneously jumped recklessly over the side of the precipice, resolved not to let the other claim the trophy we both wanted. Landing steadily on the relatively smooth but steep sides, I slid down with an increasing speed, my boots wearing thinner and thinner with every passing second. My feet were becoming incredibly warm as they skidded horizontally against the grain of the bedrock and my arms were out in front of me, shielding me from any ricocheting flints that were disturbed from their eternal slumber. The wind and rain spat in my face pushing me around like a doll, but I could still see it falling below me, rolling and free falling through the air. I knew I could do it.

However behind me came a thumping crash, almost throwing me off balance. My arms flailed in front of me, and I felt a sickening fright as I imagined briefly what would happen if I were to fall and lose momentum. Unlike a Goron I had no rocky hide to save me from the pummelling bounces down the cliff. Momentarily I thought that I would indeed tumble forwards and roll down headfirst, grazing and tearing unimaginable amounts of skin, cracking and breaking nearly every bone I possessed, and my body being shattered beyond all repair. But then I thought of Zelda, Nabooru's dying soul and how everyone was relying on me to find this broken Triforce. I was the Hero of Time, and I wouldn't let a Goron come between me and the fate of the world.

I leaned backward, regaining my composure as I saw the spinning shape of a Goron collide and bounce against the rock face, charging down much faster than I was. He was going to get there first and probably gobble down that rock before I even made it to the bottom!

'Not if I can help it,' I thought. I dug one hand into my pocket and pulled out a small pouch. If I were ever going to reach that rock first, I would have to be a lot faster. 'But if I go too fast, it might end up far worse.'

Yet when I saw the Goron gain nearly double my distance, I put my last remaining Pegasus Seeds into my mouth and swallowed hard. At once I felt the same energy rush as before pulsate through my legs and awaken the true power of my muscles. Praying a silent prayer to the goddesses, I broke away from the safe slide and began running headlong down the steep cliff, whispering all the while to keep me safe. If I made one mistake, I would most certainly die. But I had to do this, for Hyrule's sake… for Zelda…

In the time it took for the thunder to finish rumbling across the bubbling clouds I was at the Goron's side, each of us racing at equal death speeds. I felt my mouth smile. I was going to do it. I was going to reach it first and get my Triforce piece. I can see it, more and more of it beginning to crumble away and reveal the golden treasure lying inside the core. My hand felt as though it was scorched, being so near yet just too far away.

But in the blink of an eye, I was no longer touching the ground but flying through the air, a pain rooting and extending itself all the way from my foot. I could see the ground and sky spin in an endless circle in front of my eyes. Something had happened.

I'd made a mistake.

* * *

AN: Bwahahaha! I'm so evil! That's probably the worst ever cliff hanger I've ever done, and you'll have to wait till the 10th to find out what happened XD. In fact, forget my trying to get it to you some time afterward. I PROMISE I'll update as soon as I get back, although it might end up being the 11th because we come back quite late on the 10th. I really hope you enjoyed reading this last part as much as I enjoyed writing it. But prepare yourself for even more suspense… Until the 10th or 11th of August, Perfect Soldier 01 will be signing off. For now.


	11. The Ravine and the River

AN: Bonjourno folks, or Good day as we might say in English. I'm back, and as promised here's the next chapter, a day early! Turns out I got the date wrong and I came back yesterday evening instead of tomorrow evening. I had a really good time. Lakes are such beautiful places, especially when the weather's nice. But now I'm back and ready to finish this…almost. Here's chapter eleven, after much too long a break between that cliff-hanger :D

* * *

Chapter 11- The Ravine and the River

* * *

Link's POV:

Everything happened so fast. My feet felt as though they had been stabbed as they collided with the rough, thoroughly solid, rock face. Then my body lurched forward. Like a beating drum in the executioner's tower, my head pounded against the ground, flints flying into my eyes, scratching my face as if they were sharp claws. It beat me again and again with a quickening fist of fury as I began to imitate the Goron beside me. I thought my eyes would never open again, my lashes binding them together in a tight rope. I gritted my face and clenched my teeth, trying in vain to steel myself against the pain. But the darkness slowly amplified the rolling barrels of fear inside me, veiling what would inevitably determine my fate…and whether or not I would ever live to see the beautiful morning sunshine from Hyrule's high hill tops again.

The brief pauses of flying solace, residing after the terrible regularity of snaps and throbbing pain, soon ceased altogether, leaving me tumbling down the slopes at an uncontrollable pace. I realised nothing was going to stop me now. The rain washed anyway any possible hope of earthy or rocky footholds, making every surface slick and coated with its liquid. But what worried me more was that the sound of unmistakable cracks and twists, coming from deep within the chambers of my body, were conquering the sounds of the storm, the scuffling of dust and the snagging tear of cloth. I couldn't concentrate on anything else except how maimed I was becoming, or whether I'd even survive. Nothing could penetrate the immense agony drilling through my bones or the sweeping rushes of sound, swarming like insects around my ears. I had lost all thought of anything else…everything else. What flew and rampaged across my mind didn't seem real anymore… The rocks began to feel like needles, piercing my skin and drawing blood, probably leaving a streaming and splattered crimson river all the way down the cliffs of Death Mountain. I couldn't even hear the bouncing Goron anymore. I couldn't feel the shower of hurtling rocs that he'd unearth and make airborne either. Yet the pain seemed to grow worse. I'd lost and had been defeated…and I was rising?

With a collected speed I suddenly found myself being flung into the air, the soft caressing wind gliding over my grazed and bloodied cheeks. I finally opened my eyes, seeing a rush of blurring colour: sky - rock - black - rock - sky - rock - black - rock… It went around and around, the words chanting monotonously in my head. I could see the Goron still tumbling down, a great dust tail hazing the drizzling air behind him. But now I could hear nothing at all.

The snapping of limbs disappeared into a gentle whisper of the air; my torn and bloodied tunic flapped in the breeze like birds wings; and somewhere there was another, heavier crashing pound gradually getting louder and louder. However, the short ascent into the air quickly dwindled into nothing and I felt myself falling once again, only to find there was no ground to fall against. My eyes brought themselves forward, and I wanted to scream. I hadn't realised quite how high I was, or even my position. With a marching dread, my eyes rested against that black image that had twirled in between the browns and blues. A great ravine plunged below me into a dark abyss, and an ironic blade of lightning illuminated, for mere seconds, the true scale of the un-climbable walls, the light not even reaching the base.

Yet something stirred in my memory. Once, I knew I had walked along that base, travelling to the very top of the mountain. Once, Gorons had sat there and guided me toward their city…

But now I wished I'd never opened my eyes as I immediately found them paralysed by the sheer drop I was plummeting toward. I wasn't going to make it to the other side. My lungs seized my throat, choking on the falling wings of the air. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I knew bones were broken, my hands and face gushing with blood, but I didn't have any sensation of pain, not over the terrifying weights of fear dragging me down, or the awaiting invisible hands of death just waiting to catch me.

"I love you, Zelda," I whimpered, trying to fight back the tears of defeat and failure.

Then out of nowhere, through the waiting and expecting silence surrounding me, a loud and fierce bellow shattered through everything. The shout made me turn my head, the raw tears blinding my vision, but a large shape soared toward me, coming nearer and nearer until the golden blur slammed into my side. A hard hand grasped my crushed fingers.

"Don't die yet."

I didn't know what was happening anymore, but noting could check the solitary tear that slid happily down my cheek as I clamped my eyes shut again. Wincing at the shooting, aching pain in my arms, I swung them around this strange saviour's neck, relieved that they had not been broken.

We fell faster, but forward, and in another slamming encounter, I heard a scratching scrape against the ravine wall. Together we skidded down, the hand and feet of my companion scrabbling to find a foothold. A low grunt snorted by my ears, and I felt the grimace in us both as we slowly ground to a halt. Rocks fell down beside us, falling silently in the storm as the dust settled.

"Are you all right, brother?" he said, but I couldn't utter a reply at all. "That would have been quite a nasty fall there. Good thing I caught you."

"Da-Darunia?" I finally stuttered.

"You holding on tight, brother?" I nodded briefly, but at once the strong safeguarding limbs that secured me to his chest vanished, and I almost slipped away from him. My body hurt all over, a settled sting cruising steadily to every corner of every muscle, but I held on as Darunia scaled the wall, all the while muttering praise to the heavens. I wouldn't die yet…

Eventually we reached the edge, and as gently as he could, Darunia lifted me back onto the slope's surface. I stood up carefully, putting pressure only on one foot at a time, glad that the damage wasn't half as bad as I first thought. I could stand on one leg. But before I even tried to move the other, that stabbing feeling came back and it cracked all the way down my leg. I cried out and fell to the floor, cursing under my breath.

Darunia heard me and hastily knelt down by my side, a worried glaze fixed over his eyes. He watched and I felt the new pillows of blood seep through my clothes, dripping onto the rock. Without saying a word, he took me again in his large hands, lying my back across his palms.

"Damn leg," I spat.

"W-What did you think you were doing, brother?" I could hear the fear in his voice. If I didn't get help, I might die right here in his arms. "Do you _want_ to get yourself killed?" That fear turned to a concerned anger. "Tell me why!" he demanded.

"It's gone," I said, trying not to breathe heavily, as more searing pain flagged up in my ribs.

It took him a while to answer. "What's gone?"

"The Triforce - the Goron," I breathed hoarsely, trying not to let the tears fall. But despite not wanting to breathe deeply, I found I had to. "Has…Triforce." I moved my arm and pointed down the cliff. Darunia's mouth floundered open and shut, but no words were spoken. "Rock…and Triforce - Goron…eat." I couldn't say anymore.

Darunia began running, holding me tightly in his arms, without protest. My leg throbbed, as did my chest, and I didn't see anymore of where Darunia took me. Only when Darunia leaped into the air with a mighty bellow, and landed with a force equalling that of an earthquake, did I open my eyes again. The shock rattled my legs and I cried out again, rolling out of his hands as he lowered me to the ground, clutching the colossal heartbeat biting through them.

"Brother!" Darunia commanded. I turned my head in my agony and cracked open an eye, only to find him facing away from me. "Let me have that rock!" His thundering voice echoed everywhere, even in the roars behind the clouds.

I looked past him to see a shaking and trembling creature, the golden rock quivering in its hands. I felt a small smile on my face, the pain easing slightly. The silly, happy face of the Goron was no longer plastered over its features and I never thought I had seen one looking so utterly terrified. Immediately the Goron dropped the rock and shrunk away into a ball, hiding its face from Darunia as it mumbled apologies.

Something else stirred in my mind. Another memory. I remembered seeing the entire population of Gorons pleading not to be eaten, trapped in small dark cages deep in the tunnels of Death Mountain. It was the same sense of recollection as the graveyard, and the same as only moments ago. That warrior had saved these tormented creatures from Ganonndorf, from them being fed into the fiery pits of Volvagia's chamber…

Darunia retrieved the rock, and raising one fist, it came smashing down, instantly cleaving the rough exterior in two. The stone crumbled away to the ground, revealing the true golden shard trapped inside. Even in the darkness of the storm it gleamed and glinted as if light shone upon it. I smiled again and reached outward. Both the back of my hand and the Triforce glowed brighter and brighter, an overwhelming golden light pouring over the mountainside, until I had to squint to see anything at all. In the bright burst of energy, the light disappeared. Darunia smiled as I did, and he returned his attention to the trembling boulder behind him.

"Brother, you may have your rock," Darunia said.

Cautiously, the Goron sat up and while still looking at Darunia with its blank, black eyes, he gathered the remnants of his precious stones to him. Quietly he slipped away, still looking back with a confused curiosity, but he dared not utter a word.

"Thank you…Darunia," I said weakly.

He grin grew wider. "Only repaying the favour. You saved my people twice. I'm still indebted to serve you, and I will help you again."

"Forest," I gasped. "Forest - Nabooru's…hurt."

He picked me up again, and I was grateful he didn't ask any more questions. He ran down the rest of the mountainside, holding me as still as possible, until we reached the flat grasslands of the wide valley floor. The storm went on regardless, the winds becoming stronger and faster, blowing relentlessly from the north. The torrential rains hammered down on us, accompanied by irregular flashes of lightning form cloud to cloud. The sky would become alight with white, erasing all the darkness for a split second before returning to the black skies. I'd never seen such a terrible storm beset Hyrule before.

Darunia eventually slowed his pace as we came toward a gushing river blocking any further travel. As we stood there, large sections of the surrounding shoreline peeled away and was swallowed by the river, becoming lost in the surging mixture of white and pale brown. I guessed it was the same river that had ravaged Saria Town, and was probably still doing so upstream.

"Our path is blocked," Darunia said solemnly.

"There's…no time to find…a bridge," I wheezed with a great effort. "Nabooru is…clinging to her life in there. We must…find her." I breathed in again, flinching at the sharp pain. "Can you swim?"

"Hardly," he said, his eyes not looking at me. "Certainly not while helping another. The river is far too dangerous to cross. We must find a bridge."

"No time!" I insisted. But still Darunia did not move.

"I do not know these plains well enough to know where to cross safely." The Goron sage sighed. "But we have no choice." He began to step slowly toward the river's edge. "Gorons have always feared the water. We sink because we are too heavy." One foot plodded into the water and I the realised just what danger Darunia was entering into. "Many have lost their lives attempting to swim, "he continued, "but it's about time we learned how!" he said, boasting a combination of courage and fear.

I felt utterly helpless to be held while Darunia plunged into the violent waters, sinking immediately to the deep riverbed. I held my breath as Darunia held me to him, determined to not let me be pulled away by the quick liquid arms that tugged at our sides. With one careful step after another, we moved quicker finding the heavy weight of the Goron responding brilliantly against the raging currents. Like a moving anchor he trudged through the dirt clouds that plumed around his feet. But our perilous voyage was growing long and my head began to feel light and drowsy. Darunia too must have felt the same, for his pace quickening again, and suddenly my head was thrown above the water, the sweet, wet air returning to my lungs. However being so close to the surface, mouthfuls of muddy sediment in the river that carried along in the river's path rushed into my mouth, filling it with lumpy water.

No sooner had I been laid upon the ground did I start choking, spitting and spluttering on the dew-stained grass with a cracking bone piercing the air. I had never felt such horrible pain before. Each broken rib was equipped with a rock-cutting dagger, and with every breath they stabbed and stabbed inside me.

I finally emptied my mouth, the mud cradling small puddles of tears. I eased myself onto my back, breathing as swallow as I could allow myself. The rain slid over my bloodied skin and dripping clothes, the wetness feeling refreshing for the first time.

"We made it…Darunia," I said quietly, waiting for a reply. But none came. No one was standing beside me, or was even in sight as I craned my head around the empty fields. Nothing moved beneath the cloudy river, no vague moving shape under the brown veil of the tides. My heart sank like a boat to the punctured pits of my stomach: slowly and with an excruciating nausea. Everything seemed to then ache and bleed twice as much; all hope lost on that sinking boat, ready to embrace the inevitable. "No," I whispered.

The river still thrashed its way down to the horizon, the endless waves disappearing out of sight, lost as they met with the white streaks of lightning that bled across the sky, that grew further and further in the darkness. More thunder broke out overhead, rumbling like the hooves of a hundred horses, galloping free over the fields of the dark sky as if there were some world above them. I closed my eyes and listened with a heavy heart to the voice and song of the storm, somehow feeling that little bit more content with the world. The pain seemed to slowly be soothed away by the melodious whine and whistle of the breeze. Yet nothing could destroy the huge, conscious mountain of angry guilt that erupted with thick fountains of sorrowful depression inside my heart. No matter how far the physical pains dwelled, it healed. Still naught could ever forgive my sin of endangering two sages, so vital and necessary for keeping the world from a true age of darkness; or the sheer failure and defeat for being so completely helpless as to keep them from harm's ruthless way.

But something distracted me. Something began burning bright again, and from some unknown realm, the shred of hope from that sinking ship blazed proudly like a flaring beacon of a lighthouse.

A flurry of torrents flew high up into the air, becoming a firework of shimmering light as another lightning strike flashed across the sky behind, creating a beautiful, almost unreal, heavenly spectacle. I watched with a growing smile as the water rained down, carrying with it on a liquid cloud the spinning form of Darunia. With a low, deafening noise, he fell like a hurling meteor down on the ground, sending tremors along the ground. My whole body shook but continued tingling long after Darunia walked over and picked me up without saying so much as a word.

We continued across the stretching plains toward the dense sight of dark emerald trees that nestled quietly against the naked rising mountains and hills. Nothing grew on the desolate scenery, as if all vegetation had been scraped away by an angry hand, leaving only a handful of scattered shades of dark green against the carved and chiselled whites and greys of the mountains. Everything here was bare, leaving the minimum for survival, so much unlike the Hyrule I knew. The grasses here were stamped down in large oval shapes as Darunia ran through the empty and open fields that reached out into the dark night. I recalled the castle hills and the royal gardens being rich and strong, and when I had once looked out across Hyrule Field, the sun had shone down on the valiant and mysterious Kokiri Forest, spreading the seeping vitality all over the land.

'But now times were dark and evil was afoot, wandering within the borders of Hyrule, bringing with it malice and destruction. There was no life left in this land. That was why Ganon left it for the people to flee to. To eventually starve and suffer while he destroyed what was left of their homes. Ruto had told me that Kokiri Forest had become a desert and that the Gerudo Desert had become a plentiful and prosperous land. She'd told me that Kakariko village had been rendered asunder, with some brave people now residing in what was the Gerudo territory, and that Lake Hylia had once again been drained dry and had become barren land.

'The Gerudos had been his people. They had lived in the severity of the desert, while we, the Hylians, lived in what would be luxury to them: a seasonal rain, resources for food, energy, and housing. Now they had everything, and what would the people be left with when, and if, this war ended? Nothing but a dry, dead land, just like they had. Perhaps justice is being done, the tables being turned. Maybe Ganonndorf was just a pawn to speed this twisted fate along, bringing home a decent existence for his people…'

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of crushed twigs and stomped thickets breaking underneath the weight of Darunia's feet. Epona's hoof prints were still fresh in the earth, the trees sheltering them from being washed away, and I told the Goron to follow them. The crescent shaped marks weaving in and out of bushes and trees until they came to a small glade in the middle of the forest. A small, red-bricked house was hiding away behind a stone cobbled wall, smoke puffing out of a chimney and vanishing into the night sky. I hung my head back in Darunia's hands, thanking the goddesses when I saw my beloved Palomino mare tethered underneath a raised wooden shelter, standing silently next to Nabooru's horse. She whinnied and began to walk forward into the rain as far as her reins would allow her before they constricted her movement. The door opened as Darunia opened the small garden gate, revealing a stout man with hair as dark as tree bark and a shaggy beard hung around his cheeks.

"What's all the racket out here?" he said, throwing anxious glances back inside the house, clearly desperate and impatient to be left alone.

"Bagu?" I asked. He looked at me as Darunia helped me to my feet. I stood on my good leg and grimaced as I bent the other slightly to avoid hitting the ground. I held onto Darunia and he helped me walk slowly toward the stunned man.

"Y-Yes," he said, his eyes looking as if he'd seen a ghost. "Who are you and what trouble do you bring with you? I want nothing to do with your escapades, young man," he said more severely, looking back and forth between Darunia and I.

"He brings no trouble," Darunia intervened, "but Link needs help as quickly as possible."

"Not often we see a Goron down in these parts. Link, did you say?" Bagu said with a strange curiosity. He eyes me suspiciously and looked at my clothes. "That name has been mighty popular since the Prince died. Parents even go about dressing their children in that forest garb." He paused. "Your parents like that, Link?"

With a pang of sorrow, I mumbled a feeble, "Yes."

My head started to ache, and as both Bagu and Darunia helped me inside the house, I thought more and more about my parents. Who had they been? What had they done to deserve to die? I felt something give way in my head, as though another memory might be released from the warrior's time. But it died away as soon as it had come, leaving me with an unresolved affliction.

"I wonder what the hell's goin' on in these parts today. Already had one turn up on me doorstep not too long ago now," Bagu mused.

"Nabooru!" I cried as I saw her sleeping form lie still on a woven mattress laid out on the floor. Her body was wrapped in reams and reams of bandages and a cloth rested against her forehead. A half-empty bottle, containing red fluid of some sort, along with other vials and flasks lay by her side, all in a neat line.

"You know her?"

"She was…with me when…we were attacked," I said slowly, beginning to feel my head ache grow worse. Bagu said nothing and only frowned.

"I thought you said 'no trouble'," he said turning toward Darunia.

"It's true," I said.

"Troublesome youngsters," Bagu muttered as he left my side to go into an adjoining room. He brought back another woven mat and put it on the floor, then came to my side again. "Lie him down on that."

Immediately, Bagu got up and fetched more bandage and ointment from the same room and put a cold, wet cloth over my forehead. Without even asking he pulled a small knife from a pocket and ripped away the blood stained cloth that was bound around my leg and smeared something cool over it before encasing it with bandage.

"Drink this," he said, passing me the bottle with the red liquid in it. I did so, and instantly felt a lot better. "That Gerudo was barely alive when that horse brought her here. I guess she's yours."

"Yes."

"You've a clever horse, Link. I've done everything I can to help that girl." My head stung suddenly. "I'm not even sure myself whether she'll pull through. I think she'll - " But I heard no more as I fell away into an abrupt darkness, feeling my mind being pulled in two directions.


	12. Surrender

AN: Hello again! Here's another chapter for all your wonderful people, because I'm going away this weekend :D, and I wanted to have this up before I left. I'm going to my first ever anime convention! Yay! geek alert, geek alert

But, being serious for a moment, here's just a quick note about this chapter. I use 'Sacred Realm' and the 'Promised Land' interchangeably, meaning there are exactly the same place. Hopefully, this will also explain things a little more.

* * *

Chapter 12 - Surrender

Zelda's POV:

My head sunk into my knees. Over and over again I kept cursing myself, but most of all, I cursed Agahnim. 'How could we have all been so blind? How could I have not seen what his intentions were?'

The same questions kept coming back, revolving around my mind and plaguing my sleep. It had been months, almost a year now, since I had been back at the Northern Palace. It had been during that time that I'd given birth to my daughter too. Link had had to go on ahead back to Hyrule Castle while Impa, Saria and myself remained stationary in the palace. Meanwhile, Darunia, Ruto, and Nabooru were scattered all over Hyrule to search diligently for the true Hero of Time, but each so far had come to no avail.

The building had already begun and was well underway by the time Impa and I reached Hyrule Castle again. My father had reclaimed his position on the throne and had, without my knowledge, appointed a man named Agahnim to be his assistant during these dark times. I remember hearing the news in a cold sweat, thinking immediately back some distant memory when Ganonndorf himself had tried to weasel into the royal court. It was faint and hardly recallable, but I knew that somehow, and somewhere, it had happened…and now the same thing would happen all over again.

No sooner had my father appointed him, Agahnim had taken charge of the new building of the castle, drawing out new plans for rooms, dungeons and obscure chambers for himself. As soon as I had heard of this, I had had my doubts and my suspicions. As much as I wanted to raise my darling daughter, something came to me in a dream, advising me strongly to entrust my daughter to someone else. I remembered awaking very suddenly with the same distant memory of this happening before. I had told both Impa and Saria about my dream, and it was Saria that had volunteered to keep my child safely in the Northern Palace, unknown to Agahnim and to the rest of Hyrule.

And I praised the goddesses that I had left her with Saria, for now I was trapped in the finished dungeons of the new Hyrule Castle. The plotting figurehead had been Agahnim, determined to follow in the 'great Ganon's footsteps' and reach the Promised Land using the descendants of an early race of sages that had originally made the seal around the Sacred Realm. Along with myself, Agahnim had tracked down and kidnapped six other maidens like myself, locking each of us in the specially designed dungeons. New guards and soldiers had been appointed to watch us all day and all night, not one of them ever seeming to tire. Every waking second they were alert with keen eyes and pricked ears. Even my father, the King of this forsaken land, had been overthrown, and Agahnim now claimed complete control over Hyrule. I never knew what had exactly happened to my father. He had been trapped down here for some time before guards came and took him away. I had never been told anything since, or had heard anything of his whereabouts.

It was dark down here. The dungeons had been placed underground, providing hardly any route of escape, and had presented the most appalling living conditions. The stone floors were hard and cold, and there was a permanent smell of urine and sweat filtering through the air. More often than not, I awoke with my head spinning with nausea. Sometimes the other maidens would cry and whimper in their cells, followed by a painful scream, as the guard would snap his whip and beat them until they stopped crying.

Every night I had tried to contact Link with hopeful thoughts. After he had left, I had lost track of his whereabouts also. I was surprised however that Agahnim didn't seem to see him as a threat, despite foiling Ganon's plans to reign over Hyrule twice before. But one by one, each maiden was removed forcefully from her cell and taken up the dark, sealed off staircase and never seen again. Agahnim was acting now, sacrificing each descendant to break the seal to the Promised Land that Ganon had already sabotaged into a dark, ravenous land. In his snarling voice, he had once told me on the day of my capture that he knew about the world-wide time reversal that had taken place in Hyrule twelve years ago. He had known about how Ganonndorf had broken through to the Sacred Realm when the Hero of Time had removed the Master Sword; how Ganonndorf had touched the Triforce, splitting it into the three separate pieces, and using his own to control the Promised Land. Ganonndorf had then extended his dark empire to the living world of Hyrule in that seven years of hell, until the Hero of Time awoke from his grave and banished him back to the Sacred Realm: the Promised Land that he had destroyed.

I had sat there quivering, as each and every single memory came flooding back, reliving the whole ordeal all too vividly in my head. "H-How is that possible? How could you know?" I had said with a shaking voice, but he didn't answer my question.

"Your precious sages have kept my master locked away in his world for far too long. He grows restless, and it will be with your help that I will break the seal of your sages and bring Ganon back into this world!" He had laughed cruelly as tears slid down my cheeks. "You helped him before too, didn't you princess? You and the Hero of Time are the real villains to this world. You instructed our dear Link to collect the three sacred stones and open the portal - "

I lunged out and slapped him. "Don't you dare mention his name!" The tears still watered my eyes, but my anger had quelled their desire to fall. He only sneered and ordered the guards to lock me away.

Ever since I have sat here in the same spot, numb and cold, pleading with the goddesses for Link to come and be found by the sages. I had always kept my mind alert for any incoming messages from them, but each of them remained silent, not reporting anything at all. Sometimes I had tried to send them telepathic messages but each time they gave a negative answer. Yet all of them had told me that they had found him at one point or another, only to have him disappear right before their very eyes, just like he had done in that graveyard all those months ago.

'Link, what's happening to you?' I thought. The more I thought about him though, the worse my head seemed to ring. 'Not again…' I held my head with both my hands, rubbing my forehead and temple as a buzzing headache swarmed over me. The darkness seemed to become even blacker in my eyes, growing like a black mould around the midnight vault of the dungeon. I leant against the cold, grimy wall, not finding any solace to this paining screech driving through my ears. Sound became lost, feeling and touch paralysed, and sight became devoid of every colour as something grabbed and pulled inside my head.

---

I heard another frightened scream as I opened my eyes, but the blinding light forced them closed. I didn't remember ever seeing such bright, strong colours as I eased myself into the strange place I had been taken too. Huge, tall statues loomed above me, all holding stone swords in such an arrangement that a small circle was formed as I looked up. Great pillars rose to the ceilings around the small raised platform I was lying on, and a staircase led down and then split as two stairwells hugged the sloping floor leading to another doorway.

"W-Who are you?" a young voice cried. "Where on earth did you just come from?"

I moaned as I sat up, the light seeming to grow ever bolder. I looked toward the source of the sound and my heart suddenly beat faster as I saw a small, little girl, no more than ten years of age, dressed uncannily like myself. Her large, dark eyes stared at me, terrified and wide, but as I caught her stare, her mouth dropped open slightly. Her hands shook and with timid steps she inched closer to me.

"Mother?" she whispered, and for a moment longer she stared at me, scrutinising every aspect of me before there were tears flying form her eyes and her small arms wrapped tightly around me. "It's really you, mother! I never thought… - It's me, Tetra!" she sobbed.

"Tetra," I said softly, knowing I had heard that name before, and with a sudden realisation, I knew that it had been the name of my daughter's baby girl…my granddaughter. But that Zelda had died. I looked at myself as Tetra sobbed in my arms. It was I, my own self. I wasn't in the body of another, I wasn't trapped someone else's mind. I could think and control my own actions…

"Tetra," I said more firmly, "I'm not who you think I am."

Her tears ceased and her head snapped up, looking at me in disbelief. "But… It can't be! You look - you look so much like her, and…and…"

I smiled slightly and stroked her soft hair, as if I really was her mother. "Dry your eyes, Tetra." She sniffed and backed away embarrassed, rubbing her wet face with her white, gloved hands.

For the first time I really looked around and saw just where the colourful light came from in such a chamber. All around the crescent shaped wall to my right were beautiful stained glass windows, each depicting the six sages, and the true, black monstrous form of Ganon was crowned in the middle with spectacular fiery reds and oranges. The light from outside shone in through the windows, casting an array of rainbow colours over every surface in definable shapes, throwing the images onto the walls. But my eyes were drawn away from the greens, reds, blues, purples and oranges; to that dark, black figure bearing it's two enormous swords. I kept staring at them, Ganon's glowing yellow eyes, when suddenly an image reared its ugly head and rushed toward me in my mind.

I remembered that night; the storm and the organ playing; the moaning of the door and the battle between light and darkness; the strong hand grasping mine as together Link and I ran through the crumbling chambers of Ganon's fortress. And then…the awful and foul transformation from man to demon, and the horrible cries and screeching roars as Ganon stomped toward us…

I looked away quickly, breathing a little harder than before. I rested a hand over my heart, finding it beating furiously against my ribs. I turned my head to see that Tetra had seated herself a little way away from me, her head in her knees, sobbing quietly. I composed myself, finding it difficult not to envision the stained glass window springing to life just like in my memory. Swallowing, I crouched by her side, my hand moving from my chest to her trembling shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Tetra," I said, knowing that my daughter had been said to be the splitting image of myself. But I was still very curious to know what had become of my daughter to result in Tetra being trapped alone in this odd place.

"Please tell me though," I paused, "what happened to your mother?" Tetra seemed taken aback by the question. "How did it come to be that you were separated from her?"

Tetra looked away. "It happened a long time ago. I was very young, but after my grandmother died, a lot of people began exploring the seas. My mother told me that they'd discovered a small island where we could live. We were sailing there when…pirates attacked our boat. They…kidnapped me, taking me away from both my parents," she said with some difficulty.

"The mistress had heard some rumour they call the 'Triumph Forks'. They are meant to hold a great power, and they had been informed that they were on our boat.

"They then kidnapped me, and the mistress raised me as her own daughter because this." Tetra paused to fiddle with a necklace hung about her neck. "But when she died, she left me to be the heir to her pirates and her ship. I then became the head of the pirates and sailed across the seas. I never knew what happened to my parents."

I looked intently at the cord of taut string and her small hand clutching something, asking if I could see it. Tetra complied and slipped it from around her neck and my eyes widening when I saw the very golden triangle I had given my daughter on my deathbed: the Triforce of Wisdom. 'That was what they must have been after,' I thought. But as soon as it touched my fingers, a wave of golden light shot forward and when I looked again, the Triforce had vanished, leaving the simple cord in my hand.

"Where did it go?" Tetra said anxiously. I raised my right hand, showing the glowing golden triangle shining on the back of it. "H-How?"

"Do you know what this is, Tetra?"

"The King said it was something called a Triforce," she replied, still mystified.

'The King? Could it really be that my father is still alive?' "This is the Triforce of Wisdom, one of the three pieces of the legendary Triforce. This is the one that I once possessed."

"But it was my mother that owned that!" Tetra argued.

"And her mother before her owned it too," I added, "and her mother, and so on. It has been passed down for many generations, Tetra."

"But that - "

"I'm sorry, Tetra," I interrupted, taking her hand. "But I must ask you to speak again. I promise that I will answer all your questions, but I must ask one more thing before you do. Why exactly are you here?"

Tetra protested, but I insisted that she spoke. I needed to know just what had happened, before our time ran out. If Agahnim had succeeded and such rumours were all over Hyrule, then there might not just be Ganondorf plotting to capture the Triforce pieces… I only hoped that Agahnim had been defeated in his plans. I prayed against all hope that Ganondorf might still be locked away in the Sacred Realm. But even when Tetra's answer came, I was still as unprepared.

"Link and I were rescuing his sister from Ganondorf." I blinked and must have squeezed Tetra's hand tightly, for she stared at me strangely, but I said nothing and loosened my hand from hers. Tetra continued but kept glancing at me warily.

"Link's sister, Aryll, was captured by Ganondorf's monster, Helmoric King, instead of myself. We were sailing near Outset Island, Link's home, when it got me. My crew managed to hit it, but it dropped me in the forest at the top of the island. Link came to see if I was all right, but when we came back out again, his sister was snatched away. The idiot wanted to try and fly after her but I caught him before he killed himself," she said with a faint smile.

"Link came aboard with us to sail to the Forbidden Fortress, a long way north from Outset. We got him there and he went to rescue his sister. I didn't see him till a long time after, when we met again on Windfall, when he managed to steal our bombs. We kept an eye on him, but didn't interfere. We headed back to the Forbidden Fortress and I met Link there again, where my pirates rescued his sister and two other prisoners. Link fought off Helmoric King, and he and I went to confront Ganondorf. But he…he was far too strong, even with Link's Master Sword. He called me Princess Zelda, but I didn't know what he was talking about at the time. Then one of the Rito and Valoo, the dragon from Dragon Roost Island, came and saved us.

"Link brought me here, and the King of Red Lions appeared and told me that what Ganondorf had said was true. I am of the Princess Zelda's bloodline, and I now hold her Triforce," she said looking at me with a frightened glaze in her eyes. "Link is now renewing the Master Sword's power and finding the Triforce of Courage that has been scattered into the sea, and I am to wait here until he returns."

I was silent. How could Ganondorf possibly be still raging terror after all these years?

"The poor boy was all dressed up in that ridiculous, green outfit too. Damn the man of legends," she continued bitterly. "If he hadn't disappeared, none of us would be right here! My mother wouldn't have been so insistent on searching for her father and I wouldn't have been kidnapped!"

My patience snapped. "Her father was a courageous man," I said with a shaking determination.

"How do _you_ know? What's courageous about leaving your wife and child and throwing the whole land into chaos? How can sending your country into an unbreakable age of darkness be courageous? My mother used to tell me stories of what a great man he was, but now I don't believe how she could still have that faith to find him and prove herself right."

"You are the one who knows nothing of Link. He was a brave and noble man, willing to sacrifice his life for my kingdom. He was ready to give up seven years of his life to stay and protect Hyrule. He defeated that monster you see on that wall," I said pointing to Ganon's stained window. "If you want to blame someone, blame me, for it was I who initially caused this mess. I…" I sighed. "I sent Link and Hyrule back in time and ruined the fabric of the ages. Because of my actions, Link died and Ganondorf claimed Hyrule as his own."

Tetra was staring at me again with that same disbelief as before. "W-Who are you?"

"I promised that I would answer your questions. What you are about to hear, Tetra, is the story of your grandmother, the part of the story your mother never told you." I took a deep breath and averted my eyes. "I am Princess Zelda, heir to the throne of Hyrule. I am from the past, and in my time, it will be another seventy years or so until you are born. But in my age, time has been torn, and because of such matters, Link, your rightful grandfather and man of legends, passed across the border of Hyrule years before he was meant to, breaking the seal holding Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm. He crossed the borders, searching for a dear companion that had aided him in the catastrophic battle with Ganon. That is how history has happened.

"But time has been disrupted in my world, causing Link to cross that border long before he was due to do so. The Triforce cannot hold the seal outside of Hyrule, and so Ganon was freed from his prison. I was forced into hiding, taking refuge in the north of Hyrule, and gave birth to your mother. But when Ganon was sealed temporarily away by another hero, I returned to Hyrule Castle only to find a man called Agahnim wanting to break the seal and enter the Sacred Realm. I believe that he succeeded in doing so, and now Ganondorf wants to find the Triforce again and reclaim what he believes to be his kingdom. But that is mere history.

"Link and myself have been slipping through time ever since, and that is how I came here. But because my form exists in the future, I became trapped in their body each time I came into the future. Now, my form has died, and so I come here as my own person. Link, I believe, has travelled through time as I am now, as a new, separate person. Being trapped in your grandmother's body, I have seen him unchanged from the man that I know, and ever since that one encounter the hope of knowing that he is alive is what spurred your grandmother and your own mother on to find him. I, as your grandmother, had seen him alive when I had thought him to be dead."

My voice began to shake and a lump formed in my throat. "You don't understand what I felt, being trapped inside a mind that isn't mine. You don't know of the immense sorrow that destroys that brief hope. Your grandmother loved Link so very much, as I do too. She knew the importance of Link's departure, and of his feelings toward his dear faerie, and so she let him go. But he never came back, even when Ganon was freed. There was no hero to save the kingdom. But when your she saw him, she thought that it was her own husband, but I knew it was the Link from my world. I cannot describe how it felt to know what a false hope she lived with…"

I broke off, covering my wet eyes with my hand.

"I'm sorry," Tetra mumbled. "I…didn't know."

"I promise you, Tetra, that you'll live in a good world, with your mother and father when this is over," I said, my voice still quivering.

A sudden crash thundered above us. Tetra gasped and moved closer to me as we heard a clattering of hoofed feet tap on the ceiling above us. Our eyes immediately locked upon the single doorway, and a pack of grunting Moblins piled into the vicinity, down the steps, and up to our platform. Each of them carried long, sharp spears and as they neared us, they pointed them directly at us. A dark shape moved through them, fluid and frightening to us both. Tetra clutched my arms, and I realised that if I weren't there, she'd have to suffer through this all alone. The black figure eventually came into view and Tetra cried out when we saw the familiar red hair, the dark skin and the menacing eyes that both of us had seen far too closely. But he looked puzzled.

"Princess Zelda? How? How can it be? You died seven years ago!"

I stood up, Tetra hiding behind me as I held her hand. "It seems that time has conspired against you, Ganondorf. Seven years is unlucky for you isn't it?" I said with a cruel gloat, feeling a familiar resolution in my words to that day in Ganon's Fortress.

He growled and ordered his Moblins closer. The spearheads touched my neck, but I didn't flinch. "You seem very unwilling to die, Princess. I admire your determination," he said advancing, tilting my chin up with his disgusting fingers. I spat at him, watching with satisfaction as he stepped away, wiping away the spittle that slid down his face.

But through the silence, there was another pair of footsteps running across the still stone. We all watched in expectation, every head turned toward that dark doorway, the quiet wavering as impatient grunts and scoffs came from the Moblins. The footsteps came down the staircase from above, sounding unsure about where they were going, almost as if they were limping. They were slow, cautious, with a heavy stride. This was no boy; this intruder was a man.

He came down, hidden in the darkness, but at the mere shape I felt my heart leap in my chest and my breathing stop. Everyone held their breath as a sword was unsheathed and Link stepped forward into the light, the different shades of colour resting gently on his tunic. His eyes caught mine nearly instantly, and an invisible line of flying emotions passed between us. His eyes were blazing with an anxiety of danger as he spied Ganondorf standing metres away from me, but I couldn't have been happier to see him as I was now.

"Link," I breathed with a smile. Tetra looked up at me and then to Link, a faint awe plastered on her features.

Ganondorf yelled in fury, but I caught the small glimpse of fear that flashed across his face before it disappeared. "LINK?!" he stammered. The fear haunted him again and he gritted his teeth. "Do I have to kill your ghost as well to finally get rid of you?" he yelled at Link.

"Your memory seems a little fogged, Ganondorf," Link said holding his sword up in the direction of his advisory. "I'm the one that killed you and sent you back to where you came from."

Ganondorf cackled. "Link, yours is the memory that needs reminding. That day you rode back to find your precious wife, I was the one that killed you. Your Master Sword, the sword of Evil's Bane, had been sealed away and your broken Triforce provided you with nothing but your idiocy to face me once again. An ordinary sword like the very one you hold now can do no harm to me. But I assure you, your death was slow and painful just like my very own when you forced me to unleash my true form. You will never understand the excruciating pain, the self-sacrifice I undertook to accomplish the transformation. I made sure you suffered the same fate, and your blood split over the entire castle, and in the rivers. There is no possible way that you could still be alive!"

Now it was Link's turn to smirk, seemingly strangely confident. "But that Link was not me."

"That's impossible!" Ganondorf looked frantically from side to side. His glowing eyes settled upon me with a sly and hungry grin fixed on his lips. He reached out and grabbed my arm, restraining my hands behind my back. A Moblin seized Tetra by her neck and brought her beside me.

"Zelda!" Link cried, but my face was forced to look at Ganondorf.

"I don't quite know how you managed to pull this one off, Princess, but you'll pay for your meddling," he said close against my face.

Without another thing said, there was a blinding flash of light and the beautiful, bright colours had vanished, replaced by the dull, cold tones of stone. I also realised that Tetra wasn't with me anymore. It was a large circular room, a tower devoid of any staircase.

"Welcome to my fortress, Princess! Let us see the legendary Hero rescue you this time!" he said in a grand voice, throwing his arms wide.

I couldn't help but look around, but before I knew it, he slapped me to the ground and knelt above me, his figure seeming larger than the tower itself. His hands punched my face and stomach again and again, each blow delivering more force than the last. I cried out and struggled to defend myself but his knees were holding my hands and arms down to the floor, and for the first time, I truly felt terrified.

"There will be no mistakes this time, Princess. I will take your Triforce, and then kill you both! There'll be no one to stop me! Without the Master Sword, Link is nothing, and that puny runt will never succeed in defeating me after I call upon the Triforce!"

"You've made a mistake already," I said hoarsely. Ganondorf froze slightly, interested in my comment. "You've already assumed that the boy will be defeated. He's the one with the Master Sword - "

"Silence!" he shouted as he jerked me against the stone floor.

"He _will_ kill you!" I finished, looking at him spitefully out of the corner of my eye.

Enraged, he hit me again. "Were you never taught any manners as a child, Zelda? Well, let me teach you the meaning of being silent!"

His hand seized my neck, squeezing it tightly. My breath was forced out of me. I couldn't breathe. Ganondorf grinned slyly, moving his knees off my hands, and immediately my fingers wrapped themselves around his cloaked arm, trying in vain to move his firm hold. Still holding my throat, his other hand then caught my right hand, curling like a claw around my wrist.

"Give it to me."

I resisted, struggling even more for the sweet taste of air in my lungs.

"Give the Triforce to me!" Ganondorf squeezed my neck tighter; his nails piercing my skin like needles. I couldn't find anymore air. He began chanting words and finally his grip lessened as I fell into the darkness, a power draining away as I surrendered the Triforce in a helpless daze, drifting between the borderline of the unconscious and the conscious. He wouldn't kill me, yet. He'd make sure I was there to see Link writhe and squirm under his power before bringing the Triforce forward and commanding his wish before our very eyes.

Then he would kill us both.

* * *

AN: Just a note to **Sage of Hyrule. **I hope this clears things up a bit. But yes, Link and Zelda were originally from OoT, but after the time reversal happened, and therefore weren't meant to have the memories of what happened. But having lived through them, they begin to remember what happened.

Also, just being general now, I know I'm sort of altering the Wind Waker ending just a tad. But I promise that it'll be necessary. So, until next time!


	13. Black Ashes

Chapter 13 - Black Ashes

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Link's POV:

One moment, Zelda was there, right before my eyes. I had looked at her for what seemed like an eternity, a universal relief reflecting in each of our faces, before I accepted what the true situation was. Ganondorf had been standing right beside Zelda, yet I had only noticed her. And then, in a flash of light she was gone. The first thing that came to my mind was that time had taken her away, perhaps severing her completely from me for good. But Ganondorf had gone with her.

I cried out her name, feeling the anger boil inside as I remembered that Ganondorf had done the exact same thing before; he had taken her away the very moment that Zelda had revealed her true identity in the Temple of Time. He had trapped her inside a crystal, and I couldn't break through to save her. I couldn't rescue her, and I couldn't help her the time she needed me most…

A deafening bellow suddenly filled the room and at once the Moblins came charging up the steps, as if driven by a silent order. I put my thoughts away and readied myself, cringing at the dull ache in my leg. The potion had partially healed the injury, but it yet to work to its full capacity.

The first Moblin came, swinging its great spear horizontally. I raised my sword and struck, shaving the blade from its wooden staff. It whistled through the air and splashed into the watery basins below, soon to be joined by many more. The Moblin looked astounded, and tried vainly to defend itself with the stick as I advanced and tore my sword through the crowd of monsters.

Ganondorf wasn't going to repeat what happened before. I wouldn't let him. I knew that he would be sure to eradicate us both, making sure that neither ever interfered with his plans again. If what he had said was true, then I was sure that he wouldn't hesitate to kill Zelda once he had the Triforce. Before… it was still a hazy memory, but I knew that he had not come with an army of Moblins. He had been confident enough to capture Zelda alone.

I was at the bottom of the steps, my body falling into a set rhythm of slicing up and forward. Up to the spearhead and forward to the heart, up to the spearhead and forward to the heart… But my leg was tiring. It became heavy and slow, dragging the movements of my sword down, making them lazy and powerless.

"Look out!" someone cried.

I had heard it, but I was too late to react. My neck stung as if Wolfos' fangs had been driven into my skin. I was knocked aside to the floor by the brute strength of a Moblin from behind, my sword flying from my hand. It skidded across the floor, scratching the flagstones. The monster roared in victory as it towered before me, its spear raised along with its brethren. I had nothing to defend myself with as I lay against the lip of the pool. No shield, no weapon.

A shriek of terror then rang against the walls, distracting the Moblins for a mere second. I rolled aside quickly and jumped up and backward into the pool. I kicked the water in their confused and irate snouts, the cool cleansing liquid seeming to aggravate their eyes. My sword was lying on the floor past the barrage of Moblins; I pushed and shoved them out of my way before they knew what was happening. I ran, dodging the swipes and slashes made from the more alert ones, my hand barely grazing the hilt of my sword as I grabbed it and spun round the deflect an attack.

I was now in between them and the platform where Zelda had stood, trapped in a corner. Another charged away from the pack, its spear high above its head. I feinted to the side and came back in, striking the black hairy skin of its side. I plunged my sword in and out, blood spilling on the floor and whirling in a circle as I spun round and took on one more. The water all around me had been stained crimson, Moblins slain and hanging over the raised lip. As I drew my sword away, placing it back in its scabbard, I sensed another pair of eyes watching me. But they weren't that of the enemy.

I turned and looked up at the small altar, the bewildered gaze of a young girl staring straight back. I almost faltered, seeing the face of Zelda become so apparent in her features. I tore my gaze away, diverting my eyes to the horrific sight about me. She had seen those murderous, violent actions, the bloodshed and the cries of death, right before her very eyes…

"Are you…all right?" I asked, not looking at her.

For a moment she didn't reply. Her silk dress slithered and hissed as she began to move down the steps, the click of her heels echoing in the large chamber. I turned my head, overwhelmed by how much the girl resembled Zelda. She had the same sharp and powerful eyes, the same confident air about her and the same beauty.

"Are you really…who she said you are?" she said in a quiet, reserved voice, as if ashamed of something. The girl didn't look at me but at the floor, her hands fidgeting by her side. "Are you really who they call the Hero of Time?" She turned her head now, looking at me with an anxious glance.

I nodded, feeling odd to admit it when I could only vaguely remember.

"Then…what she said was true," she whispered to herself.

"Could you tell me your name?"

"My name is Tetra," she said.

"Tetra," I said kneeling down, "could you tell me what happened? Why was Ganondorf here?"

"He came for the Triforce, but I had given it to her to look at when it suddenly vanished. She said that _she _was Princess Zelda, but the King of Red Lions told me that I was meant to be of her bloodline. Then Ganondorf came in and took her away." She paused. "How is it that either of you are here? I don't understand!"

I sighed. "Bad things are happening in my world, and both Zelda and I are caught up in it. We can't help where we're transported to, and it seems that both of us have been sent here for a while." I took a deep breath. "I promise that this will be over soon, but for now you have to come with me. Trouble might be nearby so we need to leave here."

"But what about Link? I'm meant to stay here until he returns with the Triforce of Courage."

I blinked hearing my own name and the task I had been slowly completing in the same sentence from another's mouth. "We'll find him," I said eventually.

Together we walked up the stairs and back up into the main hall of the castle. It was an utter mess, the drapery torn and flapping in the draughty breeze blowing in from the unclosed doors. Dark blood had been split on the scarlet carpet and on the stone floors and nothing seemed magnificent or impressive anymore. But everything looked familiar and the castle that I had grown up in along with Zelda began to haunt the empty shell that stood before me. Everything was in its exact place, the portraits on the walls and the staircases all in their rightful position. Could it be that I was standing in my very own home?

I wanted to ask Tetra, but as we stepped outside into a courtyard, my question was replaced by a hundred more. The sky was a rippling wave, the sun a small, minuscule patch blurred in the moving waters of the heavens. There was nothing to look out upon, no horizon or mountains raising high above the forest trees. The air was cold and dry, very much unlike the warm winds that used to blow from the west across the deserts.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The goddesses sealed Hyrule away under the sea."

"But why?"

"The goddesses wanted to destroy Ganondorf, but they could not do it by mortal methods. They made it rain and rain; the land soon lost underneath the waters. Ganondorf wanted Hyrule, and he would stay there under the waters with it. But not to warn the people would be fulfilling Ganondorf's wishes. They warned the people to travel to the mountaintops to survive. It was…your wife that led them there."

"Zelda," I breathed.

All of a sudden, a bright light from the watery sky beamed down onto the swallow pool and I looked up. Something was being lowered down inside, an odd shape I didn't recognise.

"It's Link!" Tetra cried happily, clapping her hands together.

As he descended I saw him more clearly, and I smiled inwardly at the traditional Kokiri clothing he wore. But his face didn't match that of Tetra's jubilant smile. His eyes were downcast, hidden underneath the blond hair that fell over his face. He was in a small, red boat with a dragon-like figurehead. I watched Tetra's face change as he hopped out of the boat when it touched the water's surface. Her smile fell away, replaced by a worried anxiety.

The young boy lifted his head and looked at us both, stopping dead in his tracks as his eyes fixed upon me. Tetra ran forward to him, taking his awkward glare away from me. But as I stayed there, the boat's dragon figurehead suddenly moved to look at me. It's wooden eyes blinked and its jaw began moving up and down by some incredible power.

"Link? How can it be?" Everyone became silent and watched me with interest, even Tetra. "You may have answers to our questions, Hero."

I swallowed in shock, hearing what I thought to be the voice of Zelda's father. "What is it you want to ask?"

"Your appearance here is certainly very interesting, Link, but I shall omit that question for the time being. I want to ask you this; do you know why there are only four Triforce pieces out of the eight to be documented on maps? The young boy and I have been sailing the seas and have only managed to find four pieces buried under the seas."

"There are only four left to find because I have the other half," I said holding up the back of my right hand.

The dragon grinned. "Ah, so we have an answer. But tell me, how is it that you, the Hero of Time from so long ago, are alive today with half of the Triforce of Courage?"

"I'm not sure why I am here either, but I am not of this world, as such. I belong to the Hyrule of my own time, but time has become unbalanced and has caused the Triforce to become broken. I believe that when it split, the different pieces were transported to different times. So far I have managed to find four of those pieces as I had travelled through the ages, and now you bring the other four."

"King of Red Lions," Tetra said urgently, "Ganondorf has attacked the castle and has taken the real Princess Zelda! We must go and help her! We've got the Triforce now and the Master Sword has been restored."

"What is this you say, Princess?"

"It's true," I said. "Not only am I here, but so is Zelda. Ganondorf has taken her along with the Triforce of Wisdom."

"This belongs to you then," Link said, holding up his half of the Triforce. "It hasn't disappeared into my hand like yours. You should take it."

I reached out to receive it, rejoicing silently that I now had a chance to defeat Ganondorf and return to my own world. But something made me stop. "Keep it for now," I said.

"Do as he says, Link," the dragon said to the boy, and reluctantly he stowed it away safely. "We must go to Ganon's Tower. Go back through the castle and out the other side. I feel that the Master Sword will now break the seal holding Hyrule Castle. Go on and follow the path. Hero, I entrust the children to you. Protect them and keep them safe."

"I will," I replied.

"Go now, on to defeat Ganondorf!" Link and Tetra nodded and departed down the archway. "Link," the dragon called as I turned to go. "May you be happy and at peace when you return to your world. I may not be there to give you my blessing, but I leave Zelda to you."

"Y-Your majesty?" I said confused, trying to fight away the redness growing at my cheeks.

"Yes," he said in a doleful manner. "I cannot bear to part with Hyrule, Link. In the end, I'm the same kind of man that Ganondorf is. I have lived bound my kingdom. I wish I could come with you, and atone for my regrets and mistakes, but I am a being of this world. I cannot go back to the past, to my kingdom of old, but I want you and Zelda to make a better future than this one. You have to live and defeat Ganondorf. Erase him from this world and live for the future, for Zelda."

"But you could come with us," I said.

"I have lived my life, Link. It is not fair to live it again. Now go, watch over the children and defeat Ganondorf. I shall stay here and await my fate. Tell them farewell for me."

I left without saying a word, torn between the King's compassion and the urgency to rescue Zelda. Link and Tetra were waiting for me inside, and we crossed through the interior of the castle to the other side, out into the bright land again. The King had been correct; a partially invisible force veiled the archway between the two guardhouse turrets on the other side of the bridge. Link stepped forward and struck it with the Master Sword, the black magic dissolving away into nothing.

We walked out into a sheltered pathway, a trench through Hyrule field. In the distance rose a tall black building, the summit spreading wide as if it were being pressed against the sky. The trail circled round, hiding the great tower behind the natural grass, trees and hedges. We soon came to a stone passageway as steps emerged out of the ground up to a raised walkway. But as we walked up the small stairway, I saw that there were only fragments of the bridge left. Three sections were still in tact with worn pillars and archways rising out of the ground leading to a cave entrance carved into the mountainside, but the gaps were far too wide to jump across.

Link began to search in his pockets and pulled out his hookshot and a grappling rope. "We can use these to get across," he said.

He handed me the hookshot and took the grappling hook for himself. "You're going to have to come with me, Tetra," I said. She looked a little apprehensive and turned to Link, but eventually walked toward me. I held her tightly and began to aim the familiar weapon into the white stone of the pillar. "Get ready."

I clenched the deep blue handle and triggered the explosive sound of the extending cords. It hit the pillar and planted the sharp hook inside, pulling us quickly off the ground and into the air. Tetra yelped quietly, startled by the sudden movement, but I smiled, feeling the wind brush across my face. It reminded me of riding across the plains on Epona's back, yet all too soon it disappeared. Abruptly the hookshot jerked to a halt and I dropped to the ground, dislodging the weapon simultaneously.

Link then threw up his grappling rope and it wound around the stone slab that crowned the two pillars either side of him. He pulled himself up and stood atop the archway, replacing the rope with a large, green silken object from his equipment bag slung around his shoulder. As the winds began to blow, it pulled him through the air, his hands clutching either side of his green object. He came closer and I saw it was a large, strong and flexible leaf, and not silk at all. The winds picked up and Link's light body went sailing over our heads and he would land on the next section. He came down to land, but suddenly he swerved to the side and two Keeses flew into the sky screeching and squawking, but now he wouldn't make it to the bridge. The wind carried him downward and he shouted out. I pulled Tetra to me again and sprung the hookshot again. As soon as I knew we were over the gap I let Tetra go. She landed with a thud on the ground, but I yanked at the hookshot, pulling it free, and dove off the bridge before I could hear her protest. I swung my arm back with the hookshot ready to fire in my hand as I neared Link.

"Link!" Tetra cried from above.

He was turning his leaf in the air, trying not to be pushed any further forward but to no avail. I was falling far too far away from him. I past him quickly and I turned around, pressing down hard on the trigger. The hookshot launched into the air and finally struck the pillar after a long few seconds of singing wind flapping around me. I was brought up at an alarming rate, but I knew I had to catch Link. I heaved myself through the air toward Link, swinging as the hookshot recoiled itself. I lunged out my hand and grasped something, bringing it up with me. Before I knew it I was thrown to the floor in a heap with Link's arm held tightly in my hand.

"Thank the goddesses you're all right," Tetra gasped as ran toward us.

She helped Link to his feet, but I noticed she was looking all the time at me rather than the boy. I got up warily and dusted myself off before picking up the hookshot again. We were now halfway across and only one more section stood between the entrance and us. Holding both of the children, we all made it across without any trouble this time.

As soon as my feet touched to ground, they began running of their accord through the cavern. Skulls littered the floor and pillars similar to the ones outside were built into the rock, supporting the shallow roof. Their colours had once been white and pure, but the darkness sullied them with greys and hid the dirty smears of blood. I could smell it in the air. Many had died here, and as I looked down at the ground, the stone was wiped with dragging lines of crimson, as if each body had been hauled across the floor and left to rot.

The door itself was the source of this bloodied river, and slowly I eased the boulder to the side, staring with disgust at Ganon's head with was carved in the centre, surrounded by the flames of hell. Immediately, a searing heat blasted through the air, smothering my face with ash and embers. Inside was the large, circular chamber of a volcano, and Link and Tetra came up by my side, each shielding their eyes with their arms. It felt as if the sun was barely a few meters away from us, radiating its punishing heat in every direction. But still I led the way forward, out into the centre of a flimsy walkway, suspended above the bubbling pits of white magma. The air wavered back and forth in front of my eyes, but a huge black and worn white structure rose up on the opposite side.

As we neared the end of the walkway, onto the top of a central stone pillar, it became clearer that it was the skull of a giant monster. It grinned menacingly down at us, the dark eye sockets laughing with a cruel cackle. Ferocious horns were directed out in front of it, the sharp tip of each still visible even from the ground. Below it was a heavy door, encrypted with four odd symbols in bright colours, all except one that remained unlit and dim.

"What do we do now?" Tetra asked.

I looked around and saw four other doors, all bearing one of the four pictures on its front. Strangely three them seemed to appear open, leaving only one sealed closed.

"I think we - " But a faint, brief rumbling cut me off.

"What?"

It came again, only slightly louder. Link unsheathed the Master Sword and looked toward the closed door silently. He began walking forward alone.

"Link, wait!" Tetra cried, but he didn't stop.

Suddenly a screech erupted from within the doors and the door burst open, the broken rubble splashing into the magma, disintegrating instantly. Link kept walking.

"Link!" But Tetra's scream was lost in the thundering crash of two pincers smashing the side of the volcano open, tearing through the rock as if it were paper. Bedrock was flown everywhere, careering down in a fountain. I grabbed Tetra's hand and began running. I then realised why so many people had died here, their bodies outside rather than here. They had been running too, dragging themselves to safety before their spirit expired and left them lifeless, trapped in this forsaken niche of land.

Tetra shouted and shouted but I wouldn't let her go. We weren't going to have come this far and then die. All this wouldn't be in vain; I wouldn't let it. A collision of wood and stone echoed behind me, and I hoped against all odds that Link might have followed us, but as I felt the cool air on my cheeks again, he wasn't there at my heels. Cursing, I let go of Tetra's arm and rushed back into the volcano.

"Stay there and don't move!" I shouted over my shoulder.

The monster was now free in the chamber, its glowing red-orange body flowing like water against the current of the lava. I saw Link running wildly away from a swiping pincer, hammering down with a loud tremor against the stone pillar. Half of the bridges were out, rocks having destroyed them in their blind path. The bridge in front of me was still in tact, but the entire left side had been severed, leaving every wooden plank hanging in mid air.

My eyes wouldn't stay still, my vision flickering from the monster to the bridge. Link was dodging at an incredible speed, rolling from side to side and leaping up with the Master Sword although striking it rarely. All at once, its single rolling eye swung round in its head and stared coldly at me, filling me with a strange familiar dread. I had fought this beast before, the very first monster I had ever had to fight. It was Gohma, and it looked as large now as it had been when I was a child.

Gohma roared and reared up, flailing its arms and claws up to the volcano's high crater rim. It ignored Link and dove into the magma, spraying raining fire over everything, devouring all it touched. Nearly every rope tied to the remaining bridges exploded into flames, falling away into the hot sea. I could see the trail of its huge shape and I ran back out into the cavern, seizing Tetra's hand and thrusting the hook shot up to the sky.

"Whatever happens, you must defeat Ganondorf," I said to her anxious face as I fired the hookshot back the way we had come.

Gohma tore through the rock again, fighting its way through the small human-sized entrance. Punching the rock away, it scuttled through behind us, the height of the cave perfect for it to squeeze under. I looked behind and saw it was far closer than I had thought. It swung its huge pincer at us, catching my tunic. Fearing the worst I threw Tetra out of my grasp, feeling my body being pulled downward at a horrible angle. I heard Link cry out as a sword struck the monster repeatedly, each time edging closer and closer to the edge, the scraping of tiny feet, and then the sky shrinking into the black darkness as I fell faster and faster.


	14. Unification of the Crests

AN: Gah! I bow down and beg for mercy! I really didn't mean to leave this for so long! I'm on half term break now, so I finally have time to work on this. This is the final chapter, so I hope everything has been answered, explained and I really want to thank everyone who has supported me through this! Thank you so much, because if it weren't for you reviewers, this may not have turned out so well. Although this is the last chapter, an epilogue is to follow, so here it is, the long-awaited penultimate update!

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Chapter 14 - Unification of the Crests

* * *

Zelda's POV:

It was another time, and another place. I was a passenger in my own body, neither able to move or think freely. The sun was shining, and there were petals being thrown into the wind from somewhere. It almost looked like there was a blizzard in the warm summer morning, substituting the clouds that had fled from the skies. My hand was closed tightly around another, but before I could look to see who stood beside me, the bright sunshine diminished into a dim candlelight.

I found myself lying in a lonely, grand chamber. I sat up and looked at my surroundings, shivering in the stale, seemingly circular arena. A faint glow was somewhere across the other side, the only light that crept into this windowless place. A ghostly frost emanated from the floor and I pulled my arms close around me, feeling both the freezing chill and something else lost inside my chest. I felt empty with the loss of my Triforce. Not being able to stop myself my thoughts started to form a continuous stream of nonsense. Such babbling, incoherent reasoning. It frightened me; I wanted it to stop. My hands flung themselves against the side of my head, trying to stop the invisible voices from entering my ears. But when I moved, someone spoke from the darkness.

"What ails you, princess?"

I jumped at the loud echo and froze in my place. My eyes watched stupidly as the figure revealed itself, stepping into the hazy light, the golden torch moving closer. I couldn't bring myself to speak. No words formed in my mouth.

"It seems you have learnt how to be silent, dear princess. I congratulate you on your achievement," the deep voice said mockingly. Heavy footsteps came closer but I still couldn't see the intruder's face, although his voice was all too recognisable. In the faint light I could see his shadow and frame illuminated in the dark slightly with midnight hues and shades. Ganondorf loomed in front of me.

"Tell me, do you think your hero will come to save you?" he continued.

"Of course he will," I said trying to sound unafraid, but my words came as an unstable and fearful whisper.

"You don't sound very confident, princess. Where is your famous fiery determination?" I glared at him, my hands scrunching into fists. Ganondorf laughed. "The princess who survived the Dark Ages, you, the woman that hid from me for seven years, now cowers before me like the pathetic whelp you really are!" Ganondorf's face grew out of the black air, his breath choking my throat. I stumbled backward, retreating with a growing guilt that I was fulfilling his words. "You are nothing," he spat, "without your Triforce." Ganondorf snarled, lunging out with his hand, forcing me to look at him.

His invading fingers curled around the side of my face, while the other held down my arm. His harsh gaze stared at me for several seconds, each one seeming to last a minute, as if he expected me to say something. Neither of us spoke, silent in the stillness of the dark room. Nothing moved except the golden light on his hand. But as I looked at him, the expression on his grim face changed ever so slowly. The man's eyes softened and the claw-like hold on my face loosened very slightly. If it were at all possible, there was something almost gentle about him, as if the monster held no threat of danger at all.

Doors opened, sounding ever so far away, as if deep in the distance. Ganondorf's face grimaced, his perpetual frown setting deep in his features, every shred of delicate tenderness gone. His rough hand clutched my arm again and he dragged me up from the flagstones across the room. Light poured in from outside, bouncing from wall to wall and the immense tower was lit. The tall column stretched high up above us, perhaps touching the heavens, for I couldn't even see the very top. A network of spider-web beams criss-crossed from side to side, but my sight was torn back to the ground as Ganondorf pushed me down in front of him. Two small figures that stood at the door were cloaked in shadow, but one held a sword. A happy, relieved breath escaped me, but Ganondorf's rage drowned it from hearing.

"Give us back the Triforce!" the unarmed one cried.

"Foolish children! How valiant of you to throw away your lives! Let's see how you fare against a true enemy. Then I will know whether you'll be worthy of staining my swords with your blood."

With a click of his fingers, the dark sorcerer and I vanished from the tower, leaving behind a disjointed fiend with an ethereal presence. The essence of its black body oozed from the skin's barrier, but I smiled sadly, overcome with grief and joy. Tetra had come with another, but her companion was not the one I longed to for. In an unknown realm of my heart I feared that Link had been defeated just as Ganondorf predicted, and I remembered with a chilling clarity the moment before I lost consciousness, that Ganondorf had whispered in my ear, "Gohma will destroy your beloved! "

* * *

Link's POV: 

The sky was running further and further away, sinking in the fathomless pit that rose up like deep red mountains on either side. Caught in Gohma's razor edged pincer, I struggled, twisted and pushed away from the warm, damp circle that engulfed my waist. But nothing came to any difference, even when I felt as though I'd slipped away a little. A ring of liquid ran down around me no matter how much I moved.

I swung my sword at the jointed segments of the plated skin as Gohma flailed its body in violent jerks as it clawed for an edge to cling upon. Its eye darted in every direction, almost as if it were in a dream. But it was awake, the wind doing nothing to help slow us down toward our death, and the smooth mountainside offering no support either.

The only thought I held was to be free of Gohma's grasp. I hadn't yet thought of what I would do next if I succeeded. If Gohma held onto me, I would surely perish along with it, but on the other hand I would also probably not live to see the next sunrise if I was thrown free.

The bottom of the gorge was rising nearer by the second. I needed to do something now. Hitting the immediate option of plated armour proved to be ineffective. The only other choice was to hit something else, and then hope. I looked as frantically as Gohma's was, and then it struck me. The eye!

Raising my sword back, I hoped that all those days of endless target practise would pay off. Its shaking head was thrashing from side to side. There was no room left for error. Timing had to be perfect. Concentration had to be perfect. Nothing else could distract me. If this didn't work, I would die. I aimed, and threw my only weapon down at the falling beast. I watched anxiously, feeling my heart pound loudly against the confinement of my bones, as if it wanted to break free from my body already. I couldn't give up hope yet. My waist seemed to become damper, and it stung with the pain of a thousand swords. I cried out; Gohma stopped turning; my sword kept slicing through the air.

The slick entry into the eye was unheard. Had it missed? Was I going to die?

Gohma wailed and erupted in a fit of noise, flinging its pincers up and down. The razors around me loosened and I was sent flying into the air, soaring like a bird. The sky grew closer, the red mountain walls shrinking from its attempt to siege the heavens. Whether it was chance or whether my sword had blinded the monster, I knew I wasn't falling anymore.

I slammed into the cliff face, ready to scramble for footholds. I slipped and scraped against the rocky wall, slowing down. A ledge fell under my hands, and I hung to it, steadying myself against the rocks. Without moving too much, I craned my head downward into the dingy darkness below. A sickening cracking thunder rolled out beneath me, followed by a thick, undisturbed silence. The landing must have cracked every layer that lined Gohma's body, and I drove away the thought of the present sight on the crevasse floor.

I had landed on one of the pinnacles, atop which stood the ruined archways. Heaving myself up, I gradually climbed up to the grassy mounds that lined the long past roadway and pulled myself over onto the dusty ground, lying still for a few moments, allowing the torrents of wind to cease running across my face. Even though I was firmly on the ground, it still felt as though I was falling. When I was sure of the calm air settling against my skin, I stood up.

Down on the ground was the hookshot, teetering dangerously near the edge. I seized it quickly, thanking Tetra and Link silently for throwing it back across. They must have gone on ahead, so that meant the path wasn't blocked. Firing the projectile, I landed safely in the niche that led through to the now torn-apart entrance of Ganon's Tower. The volcanic chamber was in a very different state, but a pile of rocks, broken away from the surrounding walls had stacked up high enough to become clear of the lava. Dropping myself down carefully, I walked across the new bridge. A rope had been let down on the other side, Link's grappling hook enclosing the old wooden post. Checking it was still secure, I scaled the central rock and ran across the only bridge still in tact.

Gohma's tile had now lit up, the door opening as I pushed it. Link and Tetra couldn't be far in front then, for Gohma died not that long ago. I ran as fast as I could through the corridors, up the stairways until I reached another circular chamber. The door opposite had just shut with a low rumble, sending dust billowing away in clouds. Pot fragments were scattered around the sides of the grey stone room, lying stationary along with a discarded black sword. There must have been a battle. I opened the door and saw both the children ascend another stairway, reminding me all too well of a day that I had never wanted to forget. The only things missing were the stained glass windows and the haunting organ music coming from the very top room, where Ganon was awaiting our arrival.

"Tetra! Link!" I called.

Both the children stopped dead in their tracks, each turning their head at the same time. "You're alive!"

Followed closely by Link, Tetra ran down the steps, her eyes wet with brimming tears. "You're alive, you're alive," she whispered over and over again as she came running into my chest. A shock wave of pain flew through my stomach on contact, and I suddenly realised that the wet ring I had felt earlier was my own blood where Gohma's pincers had grabbed me.

"You're hurt!" she exclaimed, immediately bending down and tearing a length of her royal skirts to wrap around the wound.

Link silently approached me, holding out his Master Sword. "You deserve this better than I do. I want you to have my Triforce half too."

Cringing as Tetra attempted to stop the bleeding, I pushed the sword back into Link's hands. "This is your destiny. I have already interfered enough. But I think we might be able to use the Triforce halves to our advantage. Please allow me to accept your half."

Link gladly handed me the small fragments and at once they melted into my hand as the other had done. At once I felt a new revival of bravery and courage. Without waiting for Tetra to finish tying the final knot, I stood up from where I had knelt to greet the children and began climbing the stairway. Tetra and Link followed me, a new smile gleaming on their faces.

* * *

Zelda's POV: 

From the briefly illuminated tower, I was brought to a blinding sky of moving water gliding over some kind of invisible barrier. The wind blew so furiously I had to stand in a certain direction so a cloud of blonde waves that clung to my face wouldn't blind me further. Ganondorf stood beside me, looking pensive and lost in his thoughts.

From up here I could see Hyrule Castle, a failed piece of architecture in comparison to this great and proud tower, and all the vast plains of Hyrule that I had always looked upon from the windows of my own Hyrule Castle. I almost felt that I was back in my own time, a small girl again, marvelling for the first time when my father told me that one day, this land would be mine. But as I looked at it, I didn't see the lush, plentiful green fields that I had gazed upon as a child, but the barren and rotting wastelands that were only just beginning to be reborn into their former selves.

"There's no use trying to find a way to escape, princess," he said.

"Why didn't you just face them?" I said ignoring him.

"Why should I bother when a minion can do the job just as well. To think a boy can do the same job better is absurd."

"Wasn't it a 'weak child' that thwarted your plans of finding me?" I retorted.

"It was 'weak children' that led me to attaining the Triforce of Power!" he said with a booming volume. I was silent. "If I took your Triforce that easily, just imagine how simple it is to steal it from - "

A small patter of footsteps interrupted Ganondorf. Tetra and the other rose up and stood boldly before their opponent. My heart leapt when I saw the green clothes, his infamous green cap and the golden hair that fell into his face, but he was just a boy. Yet in his small hands was the Master Sword. There was still a chance.

Ganondorf stepped forward. "Let me tell you something before you die, boy. My country lay within a vast desert. When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my land, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing: Death.

"But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I coveted that wind, I suppose." He turned his head and looked out over the land below.

"It can only be called fate, that here, I would again gather the three with the crests…That I should lay my hand on that which grants the wishes of the beholder…That when power, wisdom and courage come together, the goddesses would have no choice but to come down. The power of the gods, the Triforce! He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted! Already the crest of wisdom is mine. All that remains…"

His head took a violent turn toward the boy, his eyes glaring and his teeth grinning. "Link!" Tetra screamed as he lunged toward him, picking up the child from the floor and sending the Master Sword flying from his hand. Ganondorf dealt blow after blow to the boy's face, throwing him to the ground. The sword scraped along the floor, and I ran to pick it up, before Ganondorf could seize it.

"Do not fear. I will not kill you. I merely have need of the power that dwells within you," he said as he held the boy by the left arm.

For a moment, everything went completely silent. Only the wind dared to sing as the King of Evil searched the young Link's soul for the Triforce of Courage. Even though I was standing behind him, I felt his eyes open in anger as he dropped the boy to the floor.

"What is the meaning of this? How is it that you do not have the Triforce?" His eyes fixed on Tetra and he seized her arm. "I demand you to tell me where it is!"

"This 'weak child' you speak of, Ganondorf, is proving to be difficult," I said mockingly behind him, holding the Master Swords tightly in my two hands.

Growling, he turned around with a face of thunder, his eyes narrowed into a piercing stare. There was nothing gentle about the man now. 'That had been lost too long ago to his hatred,' I thought.

Behind him Tetra raised her hand to the sky and threw a fist full of brown Deku Seeds to the floor. Ganondorf retreated in anger and freed the girl from his grasp. Shielding my eyes, a bright flash came and finished in a matter of seconds. I smiled inwardly, remembering I had often used those as a disappearing act when under my disguise as Sheik. From high atop the treetops or from a concealing ledge I used to always find some pleasure in watching Link look around confused, sometimes searching hastily for a trace that I was still there.

"That's because the 'weak child' doesn't have the Triforce," a new voice said.

Immediately I brought my hand away, my ears scarcely believing the words they had just heard. That deep, soothing sound had been absent for so long I almost thought it had been long forgotten in my memory. But when my eyes revealed the plain truth, I shamed myself for ever doubting, for ever fearing that Link would fail. There he stood, tall and strong, brave and fearless against the sight of the howling man in-between us. I felt happy tears appear in awe over the triumphant smile that both of us returned.

"Link…" I whispered, but the wind carried it away.

"Curse you Link!" Ganondorf bellowed as he recovered his sight. Two long swords suddenly fell from his sleeves, and I was the only other with a weapon. "You shall not ruin the future of Hyrule!" But he did not move to strike Link down, but instead moved toward me.

"Zelda!" Link cried.

But I did not fear him. I too had been trained in combat however limited it may have been. The weight of the sword was not familiar though, and when I swung it I was pulled along with the motion and stumbled sideways, pushed faster from a gust of wind. Ganondorf easily parried the attack but the wind suddenly changed direction, and he arched his back and his eyes widened. In the boy's hand was a strange object I had never seen before but looked strangely reminiscent of a conductor's wand. Tetra had a bow in her hand and an arrow protruded from Ganondorf's back, the wind now having fallen away. The direction of the wand seemed to mimic the wind's direction, and an old memory stirred. Could this be the second heirloom of the royal family? Was this the Wind Waker?

But even if it was, now was not the time to be in a dreamland of childhood. I ran clear of the firing range toward the only person that had fought away the insanity of this nightmare world. I didn't look back, only forward, and Link held his arms wide as I reached him. Thrusting the hilt into his own hand, I collided with his chest, feeling the gentle warmth radiating from his body. That cold, icy touch had gone as he embraced me tightly, despite it being for the briefest of moments. I didn't care; the only thing that mattered was that we were finally together.

"You're here," I said.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to make a few detours." He pulled me away and set his hands on my shoulders. "Ye of little faith, you needn't have sent the sages out to look for me," he said smiling.

"I was worried." I hit him lightly as he stepped out in front of me.

Battle was imminent; both warriors ready to fight. Another faint memory begged to be recalled. Sword in hand, his back turned, ready to finish a battle already begun, only this one was resuming after seven years. Smiling again, he drew away and ran toward his nemesis, our fingers not wanting to be parted. Tetra stepped up beside me; her hand clasped mine as we both watched the cataclysmic battle, the fight that would determine Hyrule's future. A chance of rebirth hung in balance against the destruction of death and suffering.

"Link will win," she said. "I believe you now. He_ is_ the courageous man you told me about. He will win, I know it." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for doubting you and for the things I said. Link and I thought he had perished when Gohma and he fell into the gorge, but he survived! He saved us and was ready to die for us, just as he was ready to die for you."

I smiled and held her hand with equal strength. "He shouldn't be ready to die just yet. There are many things I have yet to tell him." And I said no more, as swords clashed, arrows flew and cries screeched across the battlefield.

I looked on with a growing confidence, feeling the first battle resemble this one so clearly; the two images could be overlapped. Link and his counterpart moved and flowed as one body in battle, exacting twice the amount of damage dealt to either of them. Even when Ganon's sword struck them, I didn't cry and gasp in fear. I couldn't distract them from their task. The onslaught of sword and Light Arrow proved to be too much for Ganondorf to handle, trying to dodge one and defend from another. Even with the advantage of two swords, one always seemed to manoeuvre themselves behind the other, presenting an unblocked attack.

At last Ganondorf fell to his knees, and Link, upon meeting in motion with the boy, exchanged weapons, and as it would be written in history, the Hero of Winds leapt into the air and delivered the final blow. Ganondorf's bellowing scream echoed across the heavens as the clouds broke into a storm, the rain lashing down upon the defeated man.

"Ughnn…the wind…it's blowing," he said hoarsely as his head drooped to the floor.

Link took hold of Ganondorf's wrist and each triangle alight on their hands dimmed and in their proximity, an explosive beam of light raced up to the clouds, causing everyone to cover their eyes. The sky became clear again, and when we looked up, the heavens had broken apart and the three sacred triangles joined together and formed the holy Triforce. It descended down to the tower as if the sun was being lowered down to the earth. It was too awesome to look at directly and only when it reached us did the light appear to fade. Beneath the divine garment of golden light the Triforce became visible.

We all met in the centre. "What is it that you wish for?" I asked the children.

"You need the wish to return home," the younger Link said.

"As do you," the elder said.

"There is a another way we can go home. There is a portal linking to the upper world in the castle. You take the wish," Tetra said.

I knelt down and embraced her, saying only to her, "Thank you, Tetra. I promise we'll meet again, and when that time comes, you'll have both your parents with you." Before she could say anything I turned to the younger of the two Links and embraced him also. "May you become a strong hero."

Link then extended his hand to the boy, and they shook hands firmly. "Nice working with you. Here, this belongs to you," he said returning the bow. He smiled at Tetra and shook hands with her also. She looked away, slightly embarrassed, but returned his kind smile with one of her own.

"Well then, princess," he said turning to me. "What do you wish for?"

"I want to go home."

He took my hand and pressed it to the Triforce. "Say it again."

"I wish you and I could go home. Let the time streams will be sewn together once again and let nothing tear them apart. Let us go back in our own time!" I said louder. The sacred object glowed and a crystal like structure enclosed us. I waved to the friends that we would loose, but would no doubt see again, as I felt my body begin to leave this world of the future.

"Goodbye!" they both chanted together. Link and I replied in the same way, and then they were gone from sight, lost in a time that would never come to be.

------

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Link's POV:

Birds were singing outside in the sunshine, the curtains drawn and the room was lit with a dim light. I groaned as I sat up, rubbing my sore head as I rose form the floor. I must have fallen onto the floor while I was asleep. I sat against the edge of my bed, letting my head back against the soft comfort. My eyes scanned the room, falling upon the familiar objects of my basic quarters. Everything was as it was, except a strange smell of dirt and blood. Had I gone to sleep without bathing?

But a strange cloth was bound around my waist. The colours were of a surreal mix of pale pink and purple and as I unwound it from my waist it shimmered like light breaking through the clouds. Where had this come from?

Without thinking I got up and opened my door. A sudden urge to see Zelda kindled in my chest. My feet walked faster, eventually turning into a run, earning many confused stares from the servants and maids as I nearly sprinted down the hallways toward the Royal wing of the castle. As I neared, the number of onlookers dissipated, but not enough so I didn't collide with someone as I rounded a corner.

I apologised quickly and nearly kept running when I saw the unmistakable golden locks that fell down the woman's back. I caught her hand as she almost did the same, the mysterious material pressing in-between our hands.

"Zelda," I said.

"Link! I was just looking for you. I needed to - " Her voice trailed off as she looked at me holding the strange strip of material before her. "What's that?"

"I thought you might know."

"I do not." Both of us became silent, listening to nothing but the other breathing.

"Link, would you like to accompany me in the gardens?" Zelda asked suddenly. "There is something other than that I need to discuss with you."

"Of course."

We stepped out into the newly dew-ridden grasses, the new morning sunlight smiling softly upon us as we walked alone through the hedges and statues. Zelda walked in front of me while I held back behind, looking down at the shining silk material that I held in my hands. Where had it come from? I remember having the strangest dream where I fought Ganon again. I remembered nothing else, but the feelings I had experienced still carried with me, and I was being to feel more inclined to speak to the beautiful woman I walked with. But if I spoke I feared that I wouldn't be able to control the words that would tumble out of my mouth.

We came to the courtyard where we had first met and sat on the steps. "Link, what did you do yesterday?"

It was an odd question, but no matter how hard I tried to answer the question, it felt like my dream had lasted for so long, I had completely forgotten what I had done the day before.

"Do you remember?" I asked, avoiding her question after failing the find the answer.

"Not at all. I don't remember a thing." There was another pause. "Did you…Did you have a dream last night?"

"Yes."

"Did you remember anything?" she asked looking at me, sounding strangely hopeful.

"No, I didn't."

Her face detracted back to her knees. "Oh," she said, the hope gone and replaced by a masked defeat. This was beginning to become extremely awkward, and even though the air clung to us with a warm embrace, Zelda shivered as she fidgeted with her hands. "There is all I wanted to say," she said getting up with an abrupt tremble in her voice.

"Zelda, wait!" I caught her arm and walked in front of her to prevent her from leaving. As I looked at her vulnerable, wide and wet eyes, I felt words choke my throat. I couldn't keep them in any longer. "You didn't let me finish. I didn't remember anything that happened, but…I'll never forget the feelings I felt while I was there, especially for you." She smiled. "I don't know what it was, or why I can't remember anything, but I'll always remember how much I wanted to see you; how I wanted to tell you that I love you."

Zelda ran into my embrace. "Link," she breathed. "I never want to feel the same torture again. Promise me you'll never leave, that you'll never leave Hyrule. I love you, so dearly, and I never want to let you go."

"I'm not going anywhere," I said kissing the top of her head.

She lifted herself away from me. "Promise me."

I leant down and kissed her, feeling nothing but sheer happiness and admiration for the woman in my arms. I remember too the torture too of having to leave her. Although I remembered nothing, the pain and longing in my heart had been all too prominent from having left her to search for Navi.

I knew it would come, that the chance would appear, but when the time came I realised that my life here was far more important than following the past. The past wasn't meant to be lost, for it was the basis for the future, but it shouldn't be forgotten either. Life was too important to throw away. What was past was past, and so it should be, left our memories. We should look forward to the future: to the happiness and challenges it brings us, and let those memories float on the winds breath as letters to those we want to reach. Remembering is a wonderful thing, even more so when there's someone to share them with, but sometimes, some things just shouldn't be remembered.

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Waahhh! cries This is it! It's nearly the end! This is the last chapter ;; But there will be an epilogue, that should be up much sooner than this was. Thank you again to everyone who has reviewed! :D 

**Lunatic Pandora1:** Hmm, looking back I see your point, although I'm not sure which Link you're referring to. But I was thinking more about Link having to keep his life because if he threw himself into a life-threatening situaution it would ruin the essence of him trying to live through this. Young Link may have seemed weak, but you try fighting on a wobbly bridgeway while trying not to get yourself thrown into lava XD. Plus I've already had far too many miraculous rescues and battles to do so again.

**serenitythefaierikin:** Well I hope this ending was satisfying enough :D Yeah, this is a very confusing story, especially if you haven't played all the Zelda games.

**Hououza:** I was looking forward to doing this part, as it's the most recent game that people have in their memories, and after including all the others I couldn't leave this one out!

**Lady Kumiko:** Hehe, no problem :D I feel though that when I do write fight scenes they tend ot get very boring, very quickly. But I'm glad that at least someone doesn't think so! I've never really fought before either. The only thing that can come close is the swimming I do, although that is hardly 'fighting'. I also did a little bit of judo when I was about eight, and that was a long time ago to have any real memory of fighting XD Anyway, hope this ending is satisfactory!

**samqfurious:** Thank you! I'm glad you like it :D


	15. Dead Letters: Epilogue

Dead Letters - Epilogue

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Link's POV:

Something was calling me from the depths of sleep. It was a familiar sensation, one that had plagued the nights of the assumed repose one was meant to experience. Feeling a warm hand on my own I dragged my mind from the dreamland I was so pleasantly enjoying. It seemed the shrieking cries had awoken Zelda too.

"Isn't it your turn?" I groaned as I opened my eyes.

"She's your child too," she said grinning.

I rolled out of bed silently mourning the three years of silence that had been banished by the birth of our daughter. The chill of the darkness bit at my bare skin but I crossed our chamber to the small cot in which the darling angel was meant to be slumbering. My hands scooped her up from the cradle and I immediately returned to the warmth of my own sleeping place. Zelda rose too, crawling behind me and peering over my shoulder.

"She's so beautiful," my wife mused, taking the child from my hands as she calmed slightly.

"She's noisy."

"You're just a grumpy old man," Zelda argued. Our daughter laughed. "See? You're outnumbered on that one, Link."

"Maybe so." I reached for my ocarina that lay silently on the counter. It had been a gift that someone had given me when I was a child. I couldn't remember who had given it to me, but somewhere I knew and felt that it was from a dear friend, who had since become nothing more than an image to me. I looked up from the instrument across to my family. Zelda's eyes drooped heavily as the small girl in her arms now insisted on playing instead of going back to sleep.

"Tomorrow," I heard her mumble as she got up and placed her back in her cradle, much to her dislike.

Almost at once the cries recommenced and Zelda rubbed her forehead in fatigue. The touch of her mother seemed to eradicate the noise, and normally Zelda would have only been too happy to rise early to start the day, but the first light was far from rising over the horizon. It wasn't often that I found my wife dozing in her study, usually over a pile of papers that urgently required her signature. But that wasn't to say I had been caught taking a nap, more than once, in the middle of the afternoon sometimes.

I put the ocarina to my lips and began to play the famed lullaby that floated softly through the room. Long ago I would have hoped that my ocarina would have remained secret. There had been many times during the evening when I would just sit and play in my chambers, letting time fly away into the night. Eventually I was caught, but it was a fond memory to recall. I had been in one of the many courtyards at the time, thinking pleasantly that no one would hear or come and find me. I had been so wrapped up in my playing that I had failed to notice the light footsteps enter the vicinity until the intruder snapped a twig underneath their feet. That had been the day when Zelda had taught me her lullaby.

Upon hearing the low, mellow sound, my wife now came back to me and sat by my side. Our little girl slouched in her mother's arms, rubbing her tired eyes with her chubby fist.

"Thank you," Zelda whispered softly as she too drifted off to the dream world with her daughter, leaning against my shoulder. Even now as a woman of twenty-eight, the lullaby of her childhood still sent her into a sound sleep.

I kept playing, even when it was long since both of them had closed their eyes. The melody seemed to have the opposite affect on me, for I remained awake right through till dawn. Instead, it made me remember things, sometimes of long ago, sometimes of things I thought I had forgotten about. Maybe because it was because I was already awake, and in the company of Zelda, that I often thought about her now. Her serene face was enough to make me want to spend the rest of my days watching her in peaceful tranquillity. Her beauty seemed to grow more and more each day, and sometimes I could hardly believe if such perfection were possible. But she wasn't only beautiful to look upon; her character spoke more words than mere image. I loved her more each day and it never has once ceased. I owe her so much gratitude, so much thanks, that she so frequently dismisses, saying with a flattered smile that it is quite unnecessary, I have habitually felt obliged to take her in my arms and just tell her how much I love her.

I still remembered that day when I had awoken from a dream that I couldn't recall. That had been ten years ago now, and still to this day I couldn't remember anything that had happened. The only things that had carried through into the land of the living were the feelings I knew I had felt. It was odd, and I had pondered over it far more than I should have done but still came to no conclusion. Eventually I let it pass into memory, but I could never answer the question to why that strange surreal material was wrapped around my waist or where it came from. I still had it, locked away in a drawer somewhere.

But my thoughts went elsewhere, for I had decided that I would never find an answer, so why should I look for one? Our daughter was now nearly a year old. There were far more important things to look forward to.

I remembered our wedding day. It had been a beautiful summer's day with a cool breeze flowing across the plains. The sun was shining high in the sky, almost at midday when the procession led out of the Temple of Time. Being a royal wedding, everyone in the land had been invited to share in the joyous communion and coronation of the new monarch. I would never rise as far as King, the rise to Prince had been exalting enough, for I was not of royal blood. Zelda therefore rose to become the Queen of Hyrule after her father's decease.

It had been a week of mixed feelings, for both Zelda and I were mourning the King's death yet filled with anticipation, as it would mean our marriage. It had been a happy day though. There wasn't a single shred of sorrow in anyone's person, and no one could escape the infectious smile that spread throughout the kingdom. I remembered as we stepped out, hand in hand, that I hardly recognised it as being summer on first sight. A flurry of white petals and blossom from the late blooming trees filled the air, resembling a winter blizzard. There wasn't a cloud in the sky that day; the rain waited until the evening.

Zelda's head slipped against my shoulder. I set the ocarina aside and gently laid her down against the soft pillows while I extracted the small bundle from her, gently stroking my daughter's blonde hair. It was getting long now like her mothers, although it was slightly darker. But she had her mother's eyes; there was no mistake there. Blues of the clearest skies couldn't match the charm that shone so brightly in her face. I kissed her forehead and returned her to her cot. I couldn't wait to see how beautiful she would grow up to be, whether she would resemble her mother or myself, or what traits she would grow to possess.

'When she does grow up, maybe her mother and I can stop being nocturnal,' I thought.

* * *

It seemed as though Zelda never aged, for there was always another walking and growing to be the exact replica of her. Oftentimes I mistook our daughter for my wife when I saw her, and she would often scold me for not recognising her. It really was only by the shade of her hair that I could tell the difference between the two. In many years past it had been the same colour as mine, a warmer gold than Zelda's. But times had changed and grey streaks now littered my hair, and you could hardly tell what colour it had been.

Our son was easier to recognise for I wasn't seeing a double image around our home. He would be the one to inherit the throne as he was the eldest son. I thought it was a stupid law that women should be discriminated from ruling, as Zelda had done more than a fine job, but it was the long-held tradition. It had been a taxing trial to get the two to understand why and there had been much bickering and arguing between them, but eventually they sorted their differences. She now had her own family to worry about, and was quite uninterested about ruling. She was married now and even had a child of her own. That was quite enough for her, she had often said.

Presently I was walking with Zelda in the gardens, as we would do every afternoon. She gazed lovingly up at me, her smile never leaving her face. Birds were singing in the trees, minding their own business, when a squealing cry made flight immediate and the flutter of wings drowned out the pattering footsteps of our first granddaughter as she tore around the corner of the hedges.

"Tetra! You'll be far too easy to find now you've made that amount of racket!" Her uncle said as he came strolling along the same path that his niece had taken just mere seconds ago.

His words were followed in quick succession by his brother-in-law's. "Ready or not, here I come, Tetra!"

Our son smiled at us, as we stood aside amused by the innocent game. As a child he had been quite a troublesome rascal, this present activity being one of his favourite past times. Quite a few memories stirred in my mind; he had sent nearly the entire castle up in a panic, as the young master could not be found in time for dinner. His sister had often been an accomplice in his mischievous deeds, and the family trait had obviously been passed on.

Tetra could been seen grinning insanely through the bushes, her hands covering her mouth to stop herself from giggling. Her father played the childish game well, making sure that his daughter could see him search high and low for her before pouncing on her from above and lifting her up onto his shoulders. She was a nimble and athletic creature, blessed with a healthy tanned skin from her father and our second family trait of beautiful blonde tresses.

Tetra giggled happily as her father swung her down to the ground. "Good afternoon your grace, your highness," he said with a bow. "Pardon me for not saying so earlier."

"How many times have we told you that there is no need for such formalities. We're family, so there's no need to feel as though you are under inspection. Please, carry on," Zelda said. "It seems to be getting quite late dear," she said turning to me, "Do you think it is time yet to go in?"

"Would you like me to escort you?" our son asked, extending his hand like a proper gentleman.

"That would be most kind," she answered, taking his hand as we walked back together under the setting sun.

Zelda sighed silently. Upon becoming a mother she had vowed to raise her children herself, never letting the housemaids or servants anywhere near them. She didn't want them to end up like her and her father, distant and detached. But in spite of that, the warmth and kindness her children showed her brought unpleasant memories back, and Zelda had once told me that she wished her relationship could have been stronger with her father. I squeezed her hand, dispersing her sadness as a more cheerful occupation proceeded.

"Please tell me a story, grandmother!" Tetra pleaded as she followed us inside to the warm fireplace of the living room.

"Yes, I think a story would be a good idea," I said as Tetra scrambled up onto my lap giggling, eager to hear a new fantasy world spring from my wife's lips.

"Which one would you like to hear?" she asked.

"May I make a suggestion?" The door opened and Tetra's mother stepped into the ring of family members. "How about the old story of legend?"

"An excellent choice," her husband replied. Tetra agreed with an expecting stare.

For a moment, Zelda's eyes froze as if something had greatly disturbed her. I touched her hand and she blinked, coming out of her trance. She looked at me and as if answering the question I hadn't yet asked, she said in a low whisper,

"I'm all right. I just thought of something, but it went away again. Well then," she said with a brilliant smile, turning back to her waiting crowd as they seated themselves around her, "long ago, there existed a kingdom where a golden power lay hidden. It was the most brilliant power anyone could imagine. It shone with a golden light too bright to see and too magnificent for mere human eyes to gaze upon. But no one could ever find it; not the Gorons that lived high in the mountains nor the Zoras that lived in the deepest lakes. Even the tribe of thieves, the Gerudo, couldn't find it in the hot desert.

"But one day, a man of great evil found this power and he took it for himself, and with it at his command, he spread darkness across the kingdom. But then…just as all hope had died, a young boy clothed in green appeared as if from nowhere. The boy, wielding a blade that repelled evil, sealed the dark one away and gave the land light. This boy, who travelled through time to save the land, was known as the Hero of Time."

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Wahh! It's finished! ;; Now review! :D

**serenitythefaierikin:** Heh. I can't write a sad ending, I hate them. Sorry for worrying you in taking so long to update. I've been getting lazy XD

**Sage of Hyrule:** Yay! It's done. I'm glad you think so, because it took me quite a lot of time to piece this thing together before I started to write this. Now my brain can have a sleep for a while :D. But unfortunately it can't be for long. I've got another LxZ story to do

**Hououza:** Yeah, the whole turning into stone thing, although I didn't include that bit XD, felt like the best ending. Also, everything seemed to lead up to that moment too and WW is meant to be the latest in the timeline, and I couldn't just leave that one out :D.

**Lady Kumiko:** Thank you! Trust me, there were times when my head was spinning trying to come up with a story that actually made sense, or at least seemed to, and that there weren't any slip ups ; There were also times I never thought I would finish this. The end seemed so far away, and now here it is ;;

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**AN: **Okay, I want to say a BIG THANK YOU! to everyone who has reviewed this. Your words mean everything to me, no matter how short. I've never gotten so many reviews before, and a big hug goes out to you all :D Thank you again, and maybe I'll see some of you over on my other LxZ story I'm writing at the moment (Fairytale Negative). Oh, and one more thing:

THANK YOU! :D Perfect Soldier 01


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